NEW ORLEANS — The steady ebb of floodwaters allowed cleanup crews to tackle mountains of debris and press ahead with recovery efforts Sunday, while President Bush flew to the hobbled Crescent City to review a mounting federal relief effort still mired in conflict.
The president arrived Sunday afternoon at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, which resumed cargo flights after two weeks of curtailed air service. He was met by New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin; Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad W. Allen, the new point man for the federal relief effort; and Army Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honore, who commands military troops mobilized along the portion of the Gulf Coast struck by Hurricane Katrina. Bush is to take his first tour of the city today by military convoy and then travel to Gulfport, Miss.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday September 15, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 45 words Type of Material: Correction
Chalmette, La. -- An article in Monday's Section A about recovery from Hurricane Katrina described Chalmette as being across the river from New Orleans in St. Bernard Parish. The town and the parish are on the same side of the Mississippi River as New Orleans.
Allen, who replaced besieged Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael D. Brown as the man in charge of hurricane aid, said on "Fox News Sunday" that "things are working wonderfully here on the ground." But he acknowledged in an ABC interview that he was "finding a lot of frustration, and it's a lot easier to deal with frustration than with anger."
New controversy flared over the pace of FEMA's efforts to provide housing to some of the 1 million people in the region displaced by the hurricane. Louisiana emergency officials charged Sunday that temporary housing promised by FEMA for 58,000 displaced residents had yet to materialize. FEMA officials denied there was a problem, insisting that 1,000 housing units were already on the way.
Nagin questioned FEMA's motives, criticizing the agency for its plans to build a temporary tent city for thousands of New Orleans evacuees deep in rural Louisiana. "For the most part," Nagin told NBC's "Meet the Press," "that would be a huge mistake because [flood victims] are getting much better care -- hospital care, housing care, support" in Texas.
Almost two weeks after New Orleans was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, the city's downtown displayed the first frail pulses of a city on the mend. Portable generators droned and air drills whined as work crews swarmed through the French Quarter, corralling mounds of street trash and starting repairs on hotels flayed open by Katrina's 140 mph winds.
There were glimpses of normalcy, too, in the suburbs. In Belle Chasse, La., a milelong column of cars brought thousands of evacuees back to Plaquemines Parish -- the first state residents allowed to return to their homes permanently. Many who returned to the parish discovered their homes barely damaged and plunged into old rites, firing up lawn mowers and leaf blowers.
