[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.