President Bush Returns to New Orleans Next Week

25 August 2007

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) - President Bush heads back to the Gulf Coast next week for a look at recovery efforts since Hurricane Katrina.

Bush will travel to New Orleans on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the second anniversary of the killer storm, he will tour parts of the devastated city and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Critics say the White House was slow to respond to the 2005 storm and hasn't been spending enough time on the recovery. But a Bush spokesman says that criticism is wrong. Gordon Johndroe says $96 billion out of the 114 billion provided by the federal government has either been spent or is available for the states to use.

Katrina killed 1,800 people and destroyed or severely damaged more than 200,000 homes.