President Barack Obama has arrived in Baton Rouge where he’ll get a first-hand view of the damage caused by flooding that that killed 13 people and forced thousands from their homes.
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President Obama has been attacked for failing to respond in time to the disaster.
The President walked through a neighborhood in Zachary, Louisiana whose homes had been flooded.
The president landed in Baton Rouge around noon.
Obama was criticized last week for not cutting short his New England vacation to go to Louisiana.
The United State’s President has recently come under major scorn for not choosing the lives of his countrymen over his relaxation. “And they want to attend their church”, the Democratic governor said.
During a question and answer session, the president said that he didn’t worry about others seeing his trip as politicized.
In Lake Arthur, residents told Edwards about a heroic effort by hundreds of volunteers and others that started during downpours August 13 and kept the Mermentau River from inundating the southwest Louisiana city of 2,700.
President Obama toured the flood damage Tuesday and promised an effective and rapid federal response.
He says that even before the August floods, wet weather had delayed planting, which ordinarily would have begun in late July.
How bad is Louisiana flooding? “I am committed to visiting communities affected by these floods, at a time when the presence of a political campaign will not disrupt the response, to discuss how we can and will rebuild together”. Obama also met with the families of officers killed or injured almost two weeks later by a gunman, apparently in response to Sterling’s killing, the White House said. Last month, 37-year-old Alton Sterling was shot to death by police in Baton Rouge at close range, an encounter captured on video that spawned immediate outrage.
The governor also introduced a program allowing people to get into their homes quicker.
Almost 11 years ago, Hurricane Katrina’s crippling of New Orleans and the coasts of MS and Alabama demonstrated how political leaders can not afford to underestimate the gravity of responding to natural disasters with force and immediacy. The flooding is now officially the worst natural disaster to hit the USA since Superstorm Sandy.
Residents such as Denham Springs’ Todd Krichel are still grappling with the scale of the destruction. “I know you will rebuild again”. “It just, all my friends, family all our friends on this street, look at it”.
“Obama should have gone to Louisiana days ago, instead of golfing. I think that’s a good thing that he did that, to tell you the truth”, he said.
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“I was just speaking to a young woman whose husband died shortly after the birth of her second child, and she was talking about how her daughter was trying to gather all the keepsakes that she had in her bedroom, but reminded her of her father”, Obama added. And other volunteers monitored the area 24 hours a day to pump out water that seeped through, she said. “Baby, let me tell you my community has come through”.
