Sep 3, 2008 3:10 pm US/Central
Bush, In La., Surveys Damage, Praises Response
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) ―
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President Bush speaks following a briefing as Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden (L) looks on during a visit at an Emergency Operations Center on Sept. 3, 2008, in Baton Rouge, La.
Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
Trying to burnish his government's reputation for handling a stormy crisis, President Bush said Wednesday the response to Hurricane Gustav has been "excellent" and noted improvement since Hurricane Katrina.
But he cautioned that the pace of the recovery will depend on how quickly power can be restored in the region.
"Phase one of the response to Gustav went very well," Bush told workers in a packed emergency command center here. "A lot had to do with the people in this room. We're much better-coordinated this time than we were with Katrina."
The president said much work remains, though, particularly given the toll the storm took on power lines.
Torrential rains and the threat of tornadoes in the wake of Hurricane Gustav slowed attempts by utility companies to rebuild the broken transmission and distribution systems that have left nearly 1.2 million customers without power. Utility giant Entergy Corp. reported more than 740,000 outages in Louisiana.
New Orleans and Baton Rouge were particularly hard hit.
Bush urged utility companies in neighboring states to send extra manpower to Louisiana if they could spare it.
"One of the key things that needs to happen is that they've got to get electricity up here in Louisiana," Bush said. "There's a lot of folks from the states that are working hard to restring the lines."
The president is on his second trip to the region since the storm hit. He was in Texas on Monday, with a satellite-fed White House speech to the Republican National Convention sandwiched in between visits.
His quick, hands-on reaction stood in contrast to his administration's bungled response three years ago to Katrina, a far more devastating storm than Gustav turned out to be.
From his motorcade, Bush spotted plenty of downed trees and street signs on a windy day. He also saw damage from above as Air Force One neared landing.
"All and all, the response has been excellent," Bush said. "But the people here understand that there is more work to be done."
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
CBS News Interactive: Hurricane Gustav
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