http://blogs.chron.com/whitehouse/archives/2007/03/going_coastal.htmlNearly 18 months after the storm, 95,000 families are still living in FEMA trailers. A third of the population of New Orleans is gone, and an estimated 200 kids in Katrina evacuee camps are not registered for school
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One thing Bush likes to do in the Gulf Coast is hand out American flags to families rebuilding their houses. Long before he shows up, Bush's advance team scouts the non-hostile property owners in a neighborhood, and later, the president drops by and gives the family a flag. The White House thinks this makes for good pictures -- and maybe it did, a month after the storm. But a year and half later, with the region still a mess and so many people displaced, it seems a little tone-deaf to be handing out flags -- politically, it does invite comparisons to what Bush isn't doing in the region.
He was once again distributing flags today as he strolled a neighborhood in Long Beach, Miss. From today's pool report:
The last stop on the walkabout was the home of Cheryl and Ernie Woodward. Ernie is the son of Catherine Woodward, owner of the first home we visited. As the president left Ernie Woodward's home, Mr. Woodward put up a flag that had been given to him by the president.
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via Think Progress
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/03/01/bush-offers-american-flags-to-katrina-victims/