Supporters of President Barack Obama lined the streets leading to a town-hall meeting at the University of New Orleans and erupted in cheers as the president’s motorcade arrived this afternoon. Even before Air Force One landed in New Orleans late this morning, hundreds lined up at UNO for the meeting at the school’s 1,500-seat fitness center. About 150 demonstrators who had gathered by midday were ushered behind barricades about 400 yards away; some were Obama supporters, others were there to protest the president’s health-care proposals. “I’m a small-business owner, and the things he has proposed are going to collapse my business,” said Tom Clement, 62, who made the trip from Baton Rouge, where he runs a landscape contracting business with five employees.
Obama defended himself against complaints from residents of New Orleans and the rest of the Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast who feel recovery help has not come soon enough from his administration. One man asked why federal damage reimbursements are coming so slowly and in amounts far less than needed. The president replied that his administration was “working as hard as we can, as quickly as we can.” “I know since a lot of these problems have been going on since Katrina, people understandably feel impatient,” he said. “On the other hand, a lot of these things are not going to be fixed tomorrow.”
The storm killed some 1,600 people in Louisiana and Mississippi—and damage has been estimated at roughly $40 billion. The damage is still starkly visible in New Orleans, in the blighted neighborhoods of creaky houses, boarded-up businesses, structure after structure awaiting demolition and critical recovery work not yet commenced.
