Bush: 'Great City Will Rise Again'

President Promises Government Will Pay Much Of Cost To Rebuild

(CBS/AP)  President Bush promised the U.S. government will pay most of the costs of rebuilding the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast in one of the largest reconstruction projects the world has ever seen. "There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again," the president said.

Standing Thursday night in Jackson Square in the heart of the French Quarter, Mr. Bush acknowledged his administration had failed to respond adequately to Hurricane Katrina, which killed hundreds of people across five states.

Mr. Bush described the hurricane's aftermath as "days of sorrow and outrage," and he said the nation had "witnessed the kind of desperation no citizen of this great and generous nation should ever have to know." He deplored scenes of victims calling out for food and water, criminals who had no mercy, and bodies of the dead lying uncovered in the street.

The president said he had ordered the Department of Homeland Security to undertake an immediate review of emergency plans in every major city in America.

He also said a disaster on the scale of Katrina requires greater federal authority and a broader role for the armed forces.

As CBS Chief White House correspondent John Roberts reports, President Bush unveiled a "classic Republican" program of tax breaks and economic incentives to help rebuild the hurricane-ravaged area. But the speech was short on specifics and did not talk about the cost of reconstruction, which has been estimated by the government at as high as $200 billion or beyond.

Mr. Bush said the suffering of victims was tempered by acts of courage and kindness by the Coast Guard and other rescue workers. To the hundreds of thousands of people forced from their homes, Mr. Bush said, "You need to know that our whole nation cares about you -- and in the journey ahead you are not alone."

Promising better days ahead, Mr. Bush said, "The streets of Biloxi and Gulfport will again be filled with lovely homes and the sound of children playing. The churches of Alabama will have their broken steeples mended and their congregations whole.

"And here in New Orleans, the street cars will once again rumble down St. Charles, and the passionate soul of a great city will return."

Mr. Bush faced the nation at a vulnerable point in his presidency. Most Americans disapprove of his handling of Katrina, and his job-approval rating has been dragged down to the lowest point of his presidency also because of dissatisfaction with the Iraq war and rising gas prices. He has struggled to demonstrate the same take-charge leadership he displayed after the Sept. 11 terror attacks four years ago.

Across five Gulf Coast states, the death toll from Katrina climbed Thursday to 794, led by 558 in Louisiana.

Faulting the government's response, Mr. Bush said that Katrina "was not a normal hurricane — and the normal disaster relief system was not equal to it." State officials have blamed the federal government for failing to respond more quickly, and federal officials have pointed fingers at state and local officials.

Responding to charges that help would have been sent more quickly if most victims had not been poor and black, Mr. Bush noted that the persistent poverty, rooted deep in the Gulf region, was broadcast for all Americans to see.

"That poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America," Mr. Bush said. "We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action."

Hundreds of thousands of people were forced from their homes into temporary shelters. Mr. Bush said the goal was to get evacuees out of shelters by mid-October and into apartments and other homes, with assistance from the government. He said he would work with Congress to ensure that states were reimbursed for the cost of caring for evacuees.

Mr. Bush proposed establishment of worker recovery accounts providing up to $5,000 for job training, education and child care during the search for employment.

He also said he would ask Congress to approve an Urban Homesteading Act in which surplus federal property would be turned over to low-income citizens by means of a lottery to build homes, with mortgages or assistance from charitable organizations.

CBS' Steve Futterman reports the streets of the French Quarter were pitch black during the President's speech. Some National Guard troops watched on a small black and white battery-operated TV. At Johnnie White's Sports Bar and Grill -- which has stayed open continuously since the hurricane -- the owners used their gasoline-powered generator to run the jukebox -- not the television.