Obama visits flood victims in Louisiana
President blends compassion, politics in Baton Rouge.
Nearly BATON ROUGE, LA. — 11 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, President Barack Obama’s visit with flood victims in Louisiana on Tuesday came once again at a fraught political moment.
Obama landed in Baton Rouge to see the devastation left by flooding in the last week, and to demonstrate, in part by his presence, that the federal government will deliver help to those who lost everything. He was met on the tarmac by Gov. John Bel Edwards of Louisiana, a fellow Democrat, and other officials.
Later, standing amid rubble in front of flooded homes, the president lamented that so many people’s lives were “upended” by the floodwaters that swept through communities with devastating force.
But he praised the response and expressed optimism that the people of Baton Rouge will recover and thrive again.
“I know how resilient the people of Louisiana are, and I know you will rebuild again,” Obama, dressed in a blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up, said after touring several homes.
He pledged that the federal government would support the victims of the community for the long run.
“These are some good people down here,” he said. “They got a lot of work to do, and they shouldn’t have to do it alone.”
Local and state officials from both political parties have praised the federal response in Baton Rouge, drawing a sharp contrast with the much-criticized delays by the Federal Emergency Management Agency after Katrina.
Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser of Louisiana, a Republican who frequently criticizes Obama, said in an interview that federal officials had done “an excellent job” responding to the floods.
But Obama’s arrival came four days after Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, visited flood-ravaged areas around Baton Rouge amid criticism that the president, then vacationing, had not made a visit.
In a tweet on Tuesday, Trump mocked Obama for failing to cut short his Martha’s Vineyard sojourn to come to Louisiana.
“President Obama should have gone to Louisiana days ago, instead of golfing. Too little, too late!” Trump wrote.
Other Republicans and distraught locals have also criticized the president for waiting more than a week to visit the tens of thousands of residents affected by the floods. More than 7,000 people were forced into 37 shelters across a vast stretch of the state by the rainfall, which has been blamed for 17 deaths.
“If the president can interrupt his vacation for a swanky fund-raiser for fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton, as he did on Monday, then surely he can make time to show up for a catastrophe that’s displaced thousands,” The Advocate, a local newspaper, wrote in an editorial last week.
“When there’s a crisis anywhere and the federal government’s involved there needs to be a presence,” said Evita Couvillion, 59, whose props, sets and books from her 35 years as a school drama teacher were piled in black bags out in front of her flood-ruined home in Baton Rouge.
She said she had not watched much news since her rescue on a boat a week and a half ago, but saw the negativity across Facebook.
Officials should come in and roll up their sleeves and help, not just stay for a photo op, she said.