    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2007, Book II)]
    [August 29, 2007]
    [Pages 1131-1133]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Gulf Coast Reconstruction in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi
    August 29, 2007

        Thank you all for coming. This is the second anniversary of an event
    that changed a lot of people's lives here in southern Mississippi and up
    and down the coast. And Laura and I are honored
    to be with some of those who endured the storm and have dedicated their
    lives to rebuilding this part of the world.
        We've been down here a lot, and as a result, I've gotten to know the
    local officials and have come to admire them as people dedicated to
    public service the way it ought to be. I first of all want to thank the
    Senator, Trent Lott, and his wife
    Tricia, for joining us. Nobody cares
    more about the people of southern Mississippi than the Lotts. The people
    of southern Mississippi are fortunate to have not only a active Senator,
    but a powerful Senator working on their behalf. And so, Senator, thank
    you for being here.
        Gene Taylor cares a lot.
    Laura and I are proud to be here with Congressman
    Taylor. Gene was raised here. The Taylors'
    daughter was married right there recently. This is where he told me he
    was baptized, married, and if you're compassionate enough, will be
    buried. [Laughter] In other words, this is home. And when you're talking
    about a man's home, you hear a sense of passion in his voice. The
    Congressman has worked hard to make sure the people down here are well
    represented, and he's doing a fine job for the people of southern
    Mississippi. Congressman, thank you for being here.
        The Governor of Mississippi has shown his
    true mettle and his value to the people of Mississippi. When crisis hit,
    he was calm. When the crisis began to abate a little bit, he planned.
    And he's been good for the people down here. He's taken a problem on,
    and he's coordinated it and managed in a way that you'd expect your
    chief executive to do. And so, Governor, I want to congratulate you on a
    job well done. I appreciate the First Lady
    being here as well. Thanks for working hard for the people down here.
        Joining us are members of--a member of my Cabinet, Alphonso
    Jackson, Housing and Urban Development
    man. Don Powell is here. He is the Federal
    Coordinator of the Office of Gulf Coast Rebuilding. That really means
    that he is the President's eyes and ears on the ground. And while we
    recognize that there are bureaucracies that we have to deal with in
    order to make sure the taxpayers' money is spent wisely, sometimes the
    bureaucracies get in the way of common sense. And one of Don's jobs is
    to help spot that--those obstacles to progress and work with the local
    folks to try to clear them out of the way.
        There's still obstacles, and there's still work to be done. But
    there's been a lot of progress made, and that's what people have got to
    understand. And I have come to this site, it's what we call ground
    zero--this is where the worst of the worst of the storm hit--to be able
    to show the American people that through their generosity, this
    infrastructure has been rebuilt.
        Before I get there, I do want to thank Phil Bryant, the State auditor, for joining us. Appreciate you
    coming, Phil. And then I want to pay tribute to the local folks that I
    mentioned.
        First of all, Eddie Favre--he's the
    mayor of the city of Bay St. Louis. Eddie's--for those of you who may be
    paying attention to this from around the country, he's the man who--
    would be known as the man who wears short pants. [Laughter] Eddie is--
    he's a colorful character, but he also is a smart man who has dedicated
    more in his life than he ever dreamed to helping rebuild a city he
    loves.

    [[Page 1132]]

        Tommy Longo, he's from Waveland. I've always
    viewed Waveland as a benchmark to determine whether or not this recovery
    is more than just shallow. In other words, I'll never forget seeing
    Waveland as we choppered over Waveland. It was, like, nothing; it was
    gone, completely destroyed. And so when I talk to Tommy--I really view
    Tommy as a barometer, and if Tommy is optimistic, I'm going to be
    optimistic; if Tommy says there is progress, I'm going to say, thanks.
    And Tommy is okay. [Laughter] I wouldn't call him the most optimistic
    guy on the face of the Earth, but given what he's been through and given
    what he has seen, it is remarkable that he's still willing to serve with
    optimism.
        And so we've got a lot of work to do. These two mayors brought their
    problems to us--people are worried about insurance here. They're worried
    about bureaucracy. I'll tell you what they're really worried about;
    they're worried about the President and other folks in Washington, other
    than the Mississippi officials, are going to forget what took place down
    here. And so one of the reasons that Laura and I
    have come back is to remind people that we haven't forgotten and won't.
        Somebody who sometimes is worried about getting forgotten is the
    county supervisor, Rocky Pullman.
    Now, Rocky, I guess we've probably met a dozen times, haven't we, Rock?
    And Rocks reminds me of the county commissioners from the State I've
    come from. County commissioners are always worried that the city folks
    are going to get the attention, but the rural folks will be ignored. Not
    in this case. Rocky has represented the people of Hancock County well,
    and we spent a lot of time talking to Rocky about debris and trees and
    other issues still facing the people down here.
        Ground zero got hit really hard. I mean, this is the place where the
    storm did its most damage. And while there is better recovery down the
    coast, people here are still trying to crawl out from underneath the
    extensive damage. It's really one of the messages I heard. And we're
    proud that Pascagoula is doing better and Biloxi is doing better. That's
    good. It's good for the State, and we're thrilled that that's happening.
    But the folks here had a special, extra problems to deal with, and I
    heard you loud and clear. And I want to thank you for sharing that with
    me.
        The American people have written a check--written checks for $114
    billion to help the people on the coast. And so one thing I do want the
    American people to know is how grateful the people of this part of the
    country are for their generosity. We felt we had an obligation to help,
    and we've helped. Now, of that 114 billion, about 80 percent has been
    obligated. Mississippi has taken the obligated money and is spending it
    wisely. There's still 20 percent of the authorized that hasn't been
    shipped out yet, so there's more money coming. And there's--obviously,
    we've got some more issues that we're trying to work through in time.
        One area where there's been great State-Federal cooperation and
    local cooperation is the rebuilding of this Bay St. Louis Bridge. Now,
    remember when we first choppered over here, Governor; the bridge was--there might have been a few pylons
    showing. You could see the planks underwater of that bridge. And this is
    a major connector for the people in this part of the world. This is a
    economic lifeline. So the Federal Government said, we have an obligation
    to repair infrastructure. I think the Congressman told me we've written
    a little more than $260 million worth of checks to help get this bridge
    built, but more importantly, this bridge was built in record time
    because of the close cooperation between the State and the Federal
    Government and the local folks. And it's a beautiful looking bridge, and
    it's working.
        There's another bridge in the foreground here, and that's a private
    sector bridge.

    [[Page 1133]]

    That's the railroad bridge that's up and running. The private sector is
    responding here in southern Mississippi. The State of Mississippi--it's
    interesting--I want to tell our fellow citizens about what they have
    done here in 2 years' period. One, they've helped move 31,000 families
    out of temporary housing into permanent homes. I don't think we would
    have been that optimistic 2 years ago when we were recovering from the
    storms that it would be possible to make those kind of moves that
    quickly.
        This is a State that opened virtually every public school that was
    damaged in the storm, a State that understands that education is part of
    the--an important part of the recovery effort. There's a billion dollars
    have gone out to help homeowners with repairs and rebuilding. The State
    is active in trying to help the citizens regain their footing. Tax
    revenues are up.
        Now, that's positive, but that doesn't mean there's not more work to
    be done and more efforts made to help ground zero recover. The
    interesting thing about the folks who live in this part of the world,
    they may have lost their building, but they never lost their soul or
    their spirit. I think the Senator called
    them--resilience is what he'd like to define people. I call them
    optimistic about life.
        And one such person is Kay Gough, who is with
    us today. Kay is somewhere--there she is, right there. Here's an
    interesting story. First of all, she's a--she loves Bay St. Louis. She
    recognizes the uniqueness of the community. She's a lifelong reader. She
    was concerned about what happened to her community. So what did she do?
    She opened a bookstore on Main Street, Bay St. Louis. First business up,
    right? One of the first, yes. And it's an interesting example of the
    entrepreneurial spirit and a--combined with a civic duty. She said
    there's still a lot of work that needs to be done to get people back in
    these communities so that they can be buying her books. She said, ``We
    want people to know that we want to be a part of the recovery and we
    want to be a part of the community.''
        It's that community spirit that has been very impressive to me and
    Laura. It's that can-do attitude. It's the
    attitude that said, ``Okay, a storm came. We understand it, we don't
    like it, but we're going to deal with it.'' That's the Mississippi
    spirit.
        And so we're glad to be back. We're glad to be back in a part of our
    country that is going to be better than it was before. It's--there's
    still work. We understand that. There's work in Louisiana to be done;
    there's work in Mississippi to be done. But the progress that has been
    made really speaks to the coordination of Government effort, but it
    really speaks to the great spirit of the people who live down here.
        May God bless them, and may God continue to bless our country. Thank
    you.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:23 p.m. at Our Lady of the Gulf Parish
    Community Center. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. Haley R. Barbour
    of Mississippi and his wife Marsha.