McCain tours still-battered New Orleans neighborhood

NEW ORLEANS -- Surrounded by gutted homes and piles of construction debris in this city's Lower 9th Ward, Sen. John McCain promised Thursday the federal government will not be so slow-footed the next time it responds to a Katrina-sized disaster if he becomes president.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee toured a residential street in the neighborhood with his wife, Cindy McCain, and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, also a Republican, before addressing about 50 activists, journalists and Katrina survivors in front of a local church. He also attended a town hall meeting at Xavier University, a predominately African-American institution in New Orleans.

"Never again will we experience such mishandling of natural disasters and the suffering that ensues from it," McCain said. "There are so many lessons that are learned and need to be learned."

McCain's visit to New Orleans was the last of a four-stop tour that included poverty-stricken towns in Ohio and Kentucky, as well as Selma, Ala., site of a 1965 bloody civil rights confrontation.

Despite the senator's promise to help speed up recovery here, McCain's voting record on Katrina-related legislation has dismayed local leaders and residents. In 2006, he voted against appropriating $109 billion in supplemental emergency funding, including $28 billion for hurricane relief, and twice opposed establishing a commission to study the response to Hurricane Katrina. In 2005, McCain also voted against allowing up to 52 weeks of unemployment benefits to individuals affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Lower 9th Ward residents welcomed the renewed spotlight on their battered neighborhood but were cautiously optimistic about the senator's visit.

"We're going to hope for the best," said Linda Jackson, president of the Lower 9th Ward Homeowners Association, who chatted briefly with McCain during his walk. "It's always a wait-and-see game here in the Lower 9th Ward."

Jindal's appearance next to the senator rekindled speculation that the 36-year-old governor could be named McCain's running mate in the upcoming presidential elections. McCain downplayed the idea, saying he valued Jindal as a friend and leader but had not involved him in the vice president selection process.

McCain's visit to New Orleans comes as the city and region still struggles to recover from the devastating floods caused by levee failures during Hurricane Katrina. Two and a half years after the floods, entire neighborhoods remain battered, rents in New Orleans have increased around 40% and the $120 billion in approved federal aid for Gulf Coast recovery has yet to fully reach local coffers. About two-thirds of New Orleans's population has returned.

The Lower 9th Ward, a predominately black neighborhood, has become a symbol of the city's struggle to fully recover. Every other home is still shuttered with no signs of rebuilding. There are overgrown lots where homes once stood.

Calvin Young, 83, a retired civil servant, said he was glad to see McCain's entourage moving through his neighborhood. But he hopes something comes of it. Young was still waiting for his home to be rebuilt, he said.

"He now knows what's wrong," Young said. "Now he just has to remedy it."

McCain blamed the Bush administration for relying on unqualified federal disaster officials, rather than local leaders and the private sector, following the floods. He also blamed Congress for not doing more to facilitate the region's recovery.

Creating more affordable housing and insuring the levees are rebuilt properly should be the federal government's priorities, he said. He also said he would be willing to reform the Stafford Act, the federal disaster response guidelines blamed for bogging down recovery, if it helped speed up recovery.

"The pace of bureaucracy is painfully slow," McCain said. "It dispirits people who would otherwise be ready to go home."