Updated: 12:13 PM EDT
Bush Says Relief Results 'Not Acceptable'
President Tours Hurricane-Battered Gulf Region
By JENNIFER LOVEN, AP
WASHINGTON (Sept. 2) - President Bush, opening a tour of the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast, vowed Friday the government will restore order in lawless New Orleans and said the $10.5 billion being approved by Congress is just a small downpayment for disaster relief.
Speaking in Mobile, Ala., President Bush says the Gulf Coast looks as if it "were obliterated by the worst kind of weapon you can imagine."
"I'm not looking forward to this trip," Bush said as he set out for a first-hand look at the destruction in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.
"It's as if the entire Gulf Coast were obliterated by the worst kind of weapon you can imagine," the president said.
Bush opened the day at the White House where he expressed unhappiness with the efforts so far to provide food and water to hurricane victims and to stop looting and lawlessness in New Orleans. "The results are not acceptable," said Bush, who rarely admits failure.
The president's comments came after New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin lashed out at federal officials, telling a local radio station "they don't have a clue what's going on down here."
Bush got a warm reception in Mobile from Govs. Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Bob Riley of Alabama. Both praised the federal government's response. Still, Barbour said, "We've suffered a grievous blow that we won't recover from for a long while."
Standing with the governors in an airplane hangar, Bush said, "We have a responsibility to clean up this mess."
"What is not working right, we're going to make it right," Bush said.
Beginning in Mobile, Ala., the president was to fly by helicopter over some of the hardest-hit areas along the Alabama and Mississippi coasts and stop at a few points in Mississippi to hear from those on the ground.
Given the chaos of the early days after the storm, Bush's schedule remained fluid up until the last minute. Aides considered limiting his visit to New Orleans, mostly drowned in rank floodwaters and descending in many areas into lawlessness, to only an aerial tour.
Friday's trip follows a 35-minute flyover of the region he took Wednesday aboard Air Force One. It offers Bush more of a firsthand assessment of the progress that has been made since he raced back to Washington to oversee the recovery effort. But, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said, the president also was going there to bring, on behalf of the nation, "support and compassion for the victims and our appreciation" for those helping with the ongoing response.
While the president was working his way along the coast, his wife, Laura, was scheduled to be nearby in Lafayette, La. Mrs. Bush was to visit the Cajundome arena to console people who took shelter there.
"This is an agonizing time for the people of the Gulf Coast," Bush said from the Oval Office.
Amid the lowest approval ratings of his presidency, Bush has other problems besides the hurricane: Gasoline prices have soared past $3 a gallon in some places, and support is ebbing for the war in Iraq.
So Bush has tried to respond in a way that evokes the national goodwill he cultivated after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks - and that does not recall the criticism his father, former President Bush, endured after Hurricane Andrew slammed Florida in 1992.
But the president began facing questions about his leadership in the crisis almost immediately.
Though he cut his August stay at his Texas ranch short by two days to re
