/ Katrina Recovery

01:52 PM EDT on Sunday, September 4, 2005

By LARA JAKES JORDAN
Associated Press

MOBILE, Ala. — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended President Bush on Sunday against charges that the government's sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina showed racial insensitivity.

The Bush administration sent its highest ranking black official Sunday to visit the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast amid criticism it had responded slowly to the suffering of poor, minority victims.

"Nobody, especially the president, would have left people unattended on the basis of race," the administration's highest-ranking black said as she toured damaged parts of her native Alabama.

Some black lawmakers, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and other black leaders have complained bitterly about the slow response to the disaster, whose victims have been disproportionately black and poor, particularly in New Orleans. They have said racial injustice was a factor in the government's slow relief effort.

"I just hope that when people stop and think about it, they will just see that that's just not the case," Rice said. "How can that be the case? Americans don't want to see Americans suffer."

Since Katrina struck, an estimated 70 nations, from Azerbaijan to Venezuela, have offered more than $100 million in cash donations to the American Red Cross, Rice said. Many countries have also donated supplies, ranging from helicopters to food, to help the victims.

After outlining the influx of international support, Rice said she had told Bush, "If there's anything I can do outside of my responsibilities as Secretary of State, I'd be happy to do that too."

Rice was attending services at the Pilgrim Rest AME Zion church outside Mobile and visiting a community center in the ravaged Bayou La Batre, 45 minutes away. Flood waters following Katrina reached 11 feet in the area, about 718,000 homes and businesses in Mobile were left without power for days, and at least two people died.

The daughter of teachers and great-granddaughter of a cotton farmer, Rice grew up in segregated Birmingham. Her family had moved to Denver by the time Rice reached junior high.

Rice was greeted in Mobile by Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, Sen. Jeff Sessions and Rep. Jo Bonner, all Republicans.

©2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.