Bush learns lessons from Katrina, responds to Gustav (Extra)

Sep 1, 2008, 17:41 GMT

Washington - Keen to demonstrate that his administration had learned a hard lesson from Hurricane Katrina, US President George W Bush was in Texas on Monday to oversee disaster relief efforts.

'Coordination on this storm is a lot better than during Katrina. This has a lot to do with the coordination of the governors of various states involved,' Bush said, after a briefing by Texas Governor Rick Perry.

Three years ago, the president was severely criticized for attending political events and poor supervision of federal efforts after Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc in New Orleans.

In 2005, federal emergency coordinators were blamed for the delayed rescue of tens of thousands of New Orleans residents who went for days without food and water. Katrina killed 1,800 in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

Bush cancelled his appearance at the Republican Party's presidential nominating convention in St Paul, Minnesota on Monday.

Rescue and recovery operations for Hurricane Gustav are headquartered in Texas, and Bush was also scheduled to visit Louisiana, where the hurricane made landfall Monday.

Texas Governor Perry said buses from Louisiana were still streaming into Texas and he expected between 45,000 to 50,000 evacuees by the end of the day.

'Your state has done good,' Perry told the president, 'We've given the rest of the country a good lesson on how to handle a big disaster.'

Bush thanked Texas and other states that were hosting evacuees for their 'spirit of sharing assets, and listening to someone's problems and seeing how best to address them.'

He said, 'It's hard for citizens to pull out, move from home and face uncertainty. But the storm is yet to pass. It's a serious event and we have to be prepared for flooding.'

With memories of Hurricane Katrina still fresh, federal, state and local officials moved quickly to evacuate nearly 2 million residents along the coast from Alabama to Texas.