Katrina Home Bush Promised To Rebuild For 74yr-old Still Stands Empty

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Katrina Home Bush Visited Still Stands Empty

by David Greene
Audio for this story will be available at approx. 7:30 p.m. ET

President Bush smiles alongside Ethel Williams during a visit in April to her hurricane-damaged home in the Upper Ninth Ward of New Orleans. Volunteers helped tear out damaged walls and floors that day, but little rebuilding work has occurred since.


Williams has owned her house on Pauline Street since 1965. Today, it still lacks walls and ceilings. The only room that's easily identifiable is the bathroom, because the toilet and bath tub are still sitting there.

All Things Considered, August 16, 2006 · In the archives of the White House Web site is an item from April 27 headlined: "President Visits Damaged Home in New Orleans, Louisiana." The pictures show President Bush with 74-year-old Ethel Williams.

"We've got a strategy to help the good folks down here rebuild," the president said that day. "Part of it has to do with funding; part of it has to do with housing; and a lot of it has to do with encouraging volunteers from around the United States to come down and help people like Mrs. Williams. So we're proud to be here with you, Mrs. Williams, and God bless you."

That was a big day for Williams. Volunteers from Catholic Charities showed up in the morning and cleared out her house. Everything was taken, even the walls and the flooring. Then, with just a half-hour of warning, the president of the United States arrived.

But since that day, not much has happened. Williams' house has stood gutted, just as it was when the president left.


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5657431

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1. Spike Lee film documents Katrina devastation

Wed Aug 16, 2006 9:44 PM

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Filmmaker Spike Lee usually says what he thinks and lets the chips fall where they may. But he grew shy the other day, telling reporters that his latest work must speak for itself.

That may be because his four-hour film "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts," about how Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, is as much an indictment as it is a documentary. He lets a hundred voices of displaced, disoriented, rightfully bitter New Orleans residents do the talking for him.

The film opens with ironic contrasts of historic New Orleans parades and parties intermixed with shots of debris, floating bodies and destroyed houses -- and all set against the music of Louis Armstrong's "Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans."

Four hours later the message is clear: almost a year after the disaster, the old New Orleans is still missing with many wondering whether it can ever return.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=entertainmentNews&storyid=2006-08-16T204415Z_01_N15346381_RTRUKOC_0_UK-LEISURE-HURRICANE.xml&src=rss

[geomon666]

2. Figures. Everything with this creature is a lie.

"Now you just stand there black person and we'll tear out these walls and do a little sweeping outside."

Go watch Prisoners of Katrina and see how inmates were left like animals for days.

[sueh]

3. Hmmm, wonder if Trent Lott's fabulous house is re-built?

Shame on you, President Bush. SHAME on you.

[hashibabba]

5. OMG, just another disgrace from this administration.

I hope the MSM keeps up with the story and they are at least shamed into fixing her house now. Probably not with these idiots!

[tanyev]

4. And if not for the photo-op, she probably wouldn't have even gotten

help clearing out her house yet.

:grr:

[ConcernedCanuk]

6. Bush blows things up, he don't build them - this shouldn't be a surprise

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