Katrina: hurricane winds still blowing
• According to Bush, there’s plenty of time for blame

BY LISANKA GONZALEZ SUAREZ—Granma International staff writer—

SEVERAL days after Katrina disintegrated, its hurricane winds continue to lash the White House, requiring a sustained effort on the part of George W. Bush to improve his image and deflect criticism of his mandate.

Realizing that describing the government response only as "unacceptable" was insufficient, Bush announced that he is to head an investigation to determine what happened, although not immediately, which prompted some people to ask whether the president is going to investigate himself. His announcement led some legislators to demand an independent investigation. In a subsequent reference to that, Bush said there would be time for determining "what went right and what went wrong...I want to know exactly what happened and how..." and added that there would be plenty of time for allocating blame.

Another measure he took was to remove Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), from his role heading up the aid effort. Shortly afterward, the president announced that each victim is to receive $2,000 in cash for immediate needs. And the last step he took to reestablish his image was to make his first visit to the most affected New Orleans neighborhoods, where he consoled victims in a "fatherly" way and posed for photos with aid workers and soldiers.

Taking advantage of that opportunity, he wasted no time in rejecting accusations of having responded slowly and poorly because the majority of those affected were Black and poor.

He also responded to those who questioned the impact of troops and resources in Iraq on those sent to the disaster area: "We’ve got plenty of troops to do both."

One thing that is certain is that according to a poll the previous week by the Pew Research Center, the president’s approval ratings fell to 40%, the lowest level registered by that institution. In addition, according to the same poll, for the first time since the September 11, 2001 attacks people in the United States believe that their president should be more concerned about what is happening in the country than the global "war on terror."

A CBS poll showed that 77% believe that the federal government response to the disaster was inadequate, and 80% believe that it was not as rapid as it could have been. According to that same poll, only 48% agree that Bush has strong qualities for leading the country, compared to 83% immediately following 9/11.

One of the latest criticisms of the administration in relation to the response to the disaster at all levels of government came from former Secretary of State Colin Powell: "There was more than enough warning over time about the dangers to New Orleans - not enough was done. I don’t think advantage was taken of the time that was available to us, and I just don’t know why," he told ABC TV. However, he dismissed the theory that the government’s slow response was due to racism, instead citing poverty. "These are people who don't have credit cards; only one in 10 families at that economic level in New Orleans have a car. So it wasn't a racial thing, but poverty disproportionately affects African-Americans in this country. And it happened because they were poor," he said.
Several days earlier, the legendary blues musician Dr. John criticized authorities for not having prevented the tragedy: "If anybody in the government would’ve done something about the disappearing wetlands for the past 50 years, then this probably wouldn’t have been as bad…It makes me think of what my friend Rev. Goat just told me, ‘Let me say this before it goes any further, New Orleans didn't die of natural causes, she was murdered.’"

The civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson stated that the government is discriminating against local businesses in order to ensure that the big corporations receive the fattest reconstruction contracts. He said that the situation smelled strongly of favoritism, while some people are still sleeping on the floor.

While the White House is still searching for a culprit for this mess, death figures in the three affected states rose after 45 bodies were found in a hospital. Forensic expert Dr. Frank Minyard, the Orleans Parish coroner, told NBC news that "There just may be a lot of people who are still down in those deep waters ... My biggest fear is that we will find something down there that is way out of proportion. Hopefully, it doesn't happen, but we worry."

Authorities said that up to 200,000 families could be left homeless for three to five years. And according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 1,600 minors are missing or are searching for their families.

Insurance companies calculating their losses estimate that the damages will be worse than previously thought.

The French media reported on Cuba’s offer to send a medical brigade to the United States. Under the headline "The American myth weakens in the Caribbean," Le Monde comments that "in Cuba, a country known for its efficient evacuation plans when under threat, the National Assembly expressed profound solidarity with the people of the United States and the victims of that catastrophe." In a previous edition, the same daily published a wire report from Agence France Press noting that "President Bush has yet to respond to Fidel Castro’s proposal to send 1,500 doctors there."

For its part, L’Humanité published a commentary in its September 5 edition titled "Cuba, a country offering solidarity...but not listened to." The article notes that "the Cuban president proposed to the United States on Friday that it was prepared to send 1,100 doctors with 26.4 tons of medicine to aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina" (those figures would later rise to 1,586 doctors with 32 tons). The commentary notes that the U.S. was equally deaf to "the offer by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez to send 120 humanitarian aid experts and 50 tons of canned food, 20 tons of potable water, electric equipment and field hospitals."

Likewise, the daily Figaro and Libération; TF1, France 2, LCI television stations; RFI and Radio Latina radio stations, and the Euronews website all included the Cuban government’s offer in their news stories, highlighting that no response from U.S. authorities had been received.

Prensa Latina reported from Washington that an open NBC network survey on its website found that 74% of respondents were in favor of accepting the medical assistance offered by Cuba. The network published comments by Luis Sauchay, one of the Cuban professionals selected for the brigade, whom they described as "a doctor that anyone would want to have available in case of an emergency."