US Katrina 2 - WRAP Hurricane Katrina commemorations, Bush, minutes silence, bells
NAME: US KATRINA 2 20070829I
TAPE: EF07/1026
IN_TIME: 10:28:57:10
DURATION: 00:03:49:09
SOURCES: AP TELEVISION/ABC/POOL
DATELINE: New Orleans, 29 Aug 2007/Recent
RESTRICTIONS: Pt No Access NAmerica/Internet
SHOTLIST
AP Television
New Orleans, Louisiana - 29 August, 2007
1. Wide view of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagan beginning bell ringing ceremony
2. Cutaway woman ringing cow bell
3. UPSOUND: (English) Ray Nagan, New Orleans Mayor:
"We ring the bells today for the 17 to 18-hundred people who have gone on to a better place. We ring the bells for a city that is in recovery, that is struggling, that is performing miracles on a daily basis."
ABC - No Access NAmerica/Internet
New Orleans, Louisiana - 29 August, 2007
4. Wide view of city as moment of silence is observed
AP Television
New Orleans, Louisiana - 29 August, 2007
5. Mid shot, Nagan sobbing at conclusion of bell ringing
6. Close-up, pan rally in lower ninth war demanding more funding (**AUDIO AS INCOMING**)
POOL
New Orleans, Louisiana - 29 August, 2007
7. Pan presidential motorcade going into Lower Ninth Ward
8. Pan shot of damaged houses from motorcade
9. Close-up President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush during moment of silence
10. Cutaway audience
POOL - No Access NAmerica/Internet
New Orleans, Louisiana - 29 August 2007
11. SOUNDBITE: (English) George W Bush, US President:
"Hurricane Katrina broke through through the levies, it broke a lot of hearts, it destroyed buildings but it did not affect the spirit of a lot of citizens."
POOL - AP Clients Only
New Orleans, Louisiana - 29 August, 2007
12. Wide shot of Bush speaking
13. Close-up Louisiana Governor Blanco and Democratic Congressman William Jefferson listening
POOL - No Access NAmerica/Internet
New Orleans, Louisiana - 29 August, 2007
14. SOUNDBITE: (English) George W. Bush, US President:
"New Orleans ... better days are ahead. It is sometimes hard for people to see progress when you live in a community all the time. Laura and I get to come, we don't live, we come on occasion and it is easy to think about what it was first like when we came here after the hurricane and what it is like today, and this town is coming back."
AP Television
New Orleans, Louisiana - 29 August 2007
15. Wide shot of Times Picayune newspaper
16. Close-up newspaper headline 'Treat us fairly, Mr. President'
AP Television
New Orleans, Louisiana - 19 August 2007
17. Walking shot in Lower Ninth Ward - from empty housing pad, to ruined house to house under repair
POOL
New Orleans, Louisiana - 29 August, 2007
18. Close-up President Bush helping family put up American flag
19. Close-up Gen White holding new home keys
20. UPSOUND: (English) George W. Bush, U.S. President:
"We have just, Laura and I have just been given a tour by the Whites in their new home and they are going to be moving into this home by this weekend. There is nothing more hopeful than to be with somebody that says welcome to my home."
21. Pull out of new home
STORYLINE:
Two years to the day since Hurricane Katrina blew ashore in the United States, devastating New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, US President George W Bush marked the occasion with a sombre minute of silence on Wednesday.
Hurricane Katrina made landfall south of New Orleans at 6:10 a.m. August 29, 2005, as a strong Category 3 hurricane that flooded 80 percent of the city and killed more than 1,600 people in Louisiana and Mississippi.
It was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.
Bush and his wife, Laura, are spending the anniversary of the storm in New Orleans and Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, determined to pay tribute to the city's rebuilders, even as he and others are criticised for not doing more to get the area get back on its feet.
But with the region far from its former self after two years, some in New Orleans think it's the president's dedication that should be in the spotlight.
"Hurricane Katrina broke through the levies, it broke a lot of hearts, it destroyed buildings, but it did not affect the spirit of a lot of citizens," Bush said.
Like his last three visits to New Orleans, including last year's anniversary trip, the president chose a charter school as his main backdrop.
This time it was the Dr. Martin Luther King Charter School for Maths and Science where Bush could combine hurricane comfort with a favourite and controversial subject: the need for competition and choice in public schooling.
"This town's coming back," he said after visiting educators and students at the school in the hard-hit Lower Ninth Ward.
It's the president's 15th visit to the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina, but it's only his second stop since last year's anniversary.
The performance by the president and the federal government in the immediate aftermath of the storm - and some residents' lingering sense of abandonment since - severely dented Bush's image as a take-charge leader.
Anger over the stalled rebuilding was palpable on Wednesday throughout the city where the mourning for the dead and feeling of loss doesn't seem to subside.
Proesters marched through the severely damaged Lower Ninth Ward demanding more funds from the federal government during President Bush's visit.
The front page of The Times-Picayune advertised a scathing editorial above the masthead: "Treat us fairly, Mr. President."
It chided the Bush administration for giving Republican-dominated Mississippi a share of federal money disproportionate to the lesser impact the storm had there than in largely Democratic Louisiana.
"We ought to get no less help from our government than any other victims of this disaster," it said.
As on other visits, the president and his team arrived armed with facts and figures to show how much the Bush administration has done to fulfil the promises the president made two-and-a-half weeks after the hurricane.
Speaking then from historic Jackson Square in New Orleans' French Quarter, President Bush addressed the nation saying: "All who question the future of this great city need to know, there is no way to imagine America without New Orleans and this great city will rise again."
There is some good news in New Orleans - the city's population is rebounding and a few neighbourhoods thrive.
The city has recovered much of its economic base and sales tax revenues are approaching normal.
The French Quarter survived Katrina, and the music and restaurant scenes are recovering.
But much of New Orleans still looks like a wasteland, with businesses shuttered and houses abandoned.
Basic services like schools, libraries, public transportation and childcare are at half their original levels and only two-thirds of the region's licensed hospitals are open.
Rental properties are in severely short supply, driving up rents for those that are available.
Crime is rampant and police operate out of trailers.
Bush noted that the federal government has committed a total of 114 billion US dollars to the region, 96 billion US dollars of which is already disbursed or available to local governments.
Most of it has been for disaster relief, not long-term recovery.
During a tour of the Lower Ninth Ward, President Bush met Gen White a bus driver who had just bought her new home for 137-thousand US dollars.
Her last home was completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.