WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Bush ordered more than 7,000 active duty
forces to the Gulf Coast on Saturday as his administration intensified
efforts to rescue survivors and send aid to the hurricane-ravaged Gulf
Coast in the face of criticism it did not act quickly enough.
"In America, we do not abandon our fellow citizens in their hour of
need," Bush said.
In addition to the active duty forces, 10,000 additional National Guard
troops were being sent to the Gulf Coast. That raises the number of
Guard personnel in the stricken states to about 40,000.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told a news conference that
more than 100,000 people already had received humanitarian aid and the
Coast Guard has rescued 9,500 people.
The federal government, he said, will "break the mold" on emergency
assistance. He said he was heading back to New Orleans to oversee the
next phase of relief efforts.
In addition, the Pentagon said Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and
Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will fly to
Louisiana and Mississippi on Sunday, and Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice planned a trip to Mobile, Ala.
Bush planned to return to the region Monday.
In his Saturday radio address, delivered from the White House Rose
Garden, Bush said, "Many of our citizens simply are not getting the help
they need, especially in New Orleans, and that is unacceptable."
The president recounted his Friday tour of the devastated region. "When
you talk to the proud folks in the area, you see a spirit that cannot be
broken," he said.
Chertoff, who accompanied Bush on his tour of the pummeled area,
expressed awe at the destruction wrought by a "Mother Nature that has
been anything but maternal." He referred to the double-barreled disaster
- the hurricane followed by a flood when the levees broke - as an
"ultracatastrophe."
Bush met for nearly an hour Saturday with Chertoff, Rumsfeld and others
involved in planning the recovery from Katrina.
Afterward, Chertoff said the relief effort would be intensified and that
the federal government would take a more prominent role in responding to
other natural disasters.
He said the government would continue pouring federal resources into the
Gulf states but conceded, "This is a daunting challenge."
He added, "People all over the Gulf area are in dire straits."
To aid the sick and injured, the National Institutes of Health is
setting up a telemedicine and triage facility that will be linked to NIH
and medical centers across the country. "This consultation will focus on
the sickest of the sick," Surgeon General Richard Carmona said.
He said 100 critical care beds were being cleared at NIH for those most
in need, and that 1,000 prescriptions a day were being filled from the
national strategic medicine stockpile.
Carmona said HHS was sending more than $27 million in emergency energy
assistance to transport people who became ill because of the storm and
its aftermath and for utility reconnection costs. The funds come from
the agency's low-income home energy assistance program.
About 4,000 active duty troops are already in the Gulf Coast and more
than 7,000 more will arrive in the next 72 hours: 3,000 from the Army's
82nd Airborne from Fort Bragg, N.C., 2,700 from the 1st Cavalry Division
at Fort Hood, Texas, and about 1,000 each from the Marines' 1st and 2nd
Expeditionary forces from Camp Pendleton, Calif., and Camp Lejeune,
N.C., officials said. Spokespeople for the 82nd Airborne said it would
be sending more than 3,000 troops.
New Orleans city officials have accused the Federal Emergency Management
Agency - part of the Homeland Security Department - of responding
sluggishly. At one point Mayor Ray Nagin told the agency, "Get off your
asses and let's do something."
Defending the administration's response, Chertoff said: "We were
prepared for one catastrophe. The second catastrophe, frankly, added a
level of challenge that no one has seen before."
He said he still has confidence in FEMA director Michael Brown.
Chertoff denied that the administration's response was hindered by the
thousands of Guard troops in Iraq.
"That process of identifying and mobilizing is taking time. But it's not
a problem of not having enough Guard," he said.
He said the federal government normally acts in support of state and
local authorities. In this case, he said, a larger federal role frees up
the National Guard to do more in the law enforcement area.
The active-duty soldiers were being deployed to provide security and
humanitarian assistance, said Lt. Gen. Joseph Inge, deputy commander of
Northern Command.
He said one complication is finding Guard members with particularly
needed skills, such as military police training, rather than sending in
tank drivers.
On Friday, a force of 1,000 Guardsmen was dispatched to the New Orleans
Convention Center to help evacuate thousands of people, dehydrated and
near exhaustion after living in squalid conditions without regular food
and water for up to five days.
With reports of thugs and criminals among the thousands stranded there,
commanders didn't move in until there was a sufficiently large force to
take on any resistance, said Lt. Gen. Steven H. Blum, chief of the
National Guard Bureau.
Weapons were found at the site but no shots were fired and no Guardsmen
were injured, Blum said.
"It was done almost invisibly," Blum told reporters at the Pentagon.
In other developments Saturday:
-The Labor Department announced a $62 million emergency grant to provide
as many as 1,000 jobs to dislocated workers in the parts of Louisiana
devastated by Katrina and support projects that provide food, clothing
and shelter.
-The Transportation Department said it has arranged for Amtrak passenger
trains to join in the effort to evacuate residents from New Orleans.
-Bush canceled his meeting Wednesday with Chinese President Hu Jintao,
the White House said Saturday, citing the hurricane aftermath. The two
leaders agreed, however, to meet on the sidelines of the United Nations
General Assembly session later this month.
After returning from his tour of the region Friday, Bush immediately
signed a $10.5 billion disaster aid package passed by Congress - an
amount he repeatedly called "just the beginning" of federal expenditures
for storm relief. He issued a memorandum saying Hurricane Katrina had
created a "severe energy supply interruption" that could damage the
national economy, and he formally authorized the release of crude oil
from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Associated Press Writer Randolph E. Schmid contributed to this report.
