NEW ORLEANS: US President Barack Obama on Monday praised government agencies which he led to meet the threat from Hurricane Isaac, after touring “enormous devastation” in Louisiana.
Obama took time out of a packed campaign swing ahead of the Democratic National Convention this week to meet local authorities, rescue workers and victims of the big storm which plowed in off the Gulf of Mexico last week.
“I want to commend everybody who’s here in what they’ve done in ensuring lives were saved,” Obama said in St John the Baptist parish, where many homes and businesses were flooded.
“Although there was tremendous property damage, people were in a position to get out quickly and as you can see, folks are on the ground clearing out the debris,” Obama said.
“I want to particularly thank (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) and the state and local authorities.”
That was a reference to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, a bigger storm, which exposed a lack of coordination among state and federal authorities, as tens of thousands of people were trapped in flooded New Orleans. Around 1,800 people died in Katrina, and the botched government response caused devastating political damage to the second term of former president George W. Bush. (Agencies)
