Katrina: Help is on the way

2005-09-01 16:29

Washington - President George W Bush said on Thursday the federal government has launched the most massive relief effort in history to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina, and while thousands more victims still need to be rescued, help is on its way.

"I fully understand people wanting things to have happened yesterday," Bush said in a live interview in the Roosevelt Room of the White House with ABC's Good Morning America programme. "I understand the anxiety of people on the ground. So there is frustration. But I want people to know there's a lot of help coming."

Zero tolerance

Referring to insurance fraud and looting, Bush said there should be "zero tolerance" for breaking the law during an emergency situation.

Bush said he has not yet finalised plans to visit the devastated Gulf Coast. He spoke as tens of thousands of people were evacuated on buses from the Superdome in New Orleans to the Astrodome in Houston.

He expressed sympathy for those still stranded and acknowledged that thousands still need to be rescued.

"I just can't imagine waving a sign that says `Come and get me now,' " he said.

Bush brushed off criticism that he did not return to Washington from his month-long stay at his Texas ranch on Tuesday, in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, instead of Wednesday.

Leave politics out of things

"I hope people don't play politics during this period of time," he said. "This is a natural disaster - the likes of which our country may have never seen before - and it's a national emergency. And what we need to do as a nation is come together to solve the problem and not play politics. There'll be ample time for politics."

Homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff, meanwhile, said one problem is that "we have an ongoing flood situation even as we're in the middle of recovering from the hurricane".

"We're in a position where there are additional people we have to look for," he said in an interview on NBC?s Today show. "We're hoping to get the most people out as we can in the next 12 hours and 24 hours, but we're going to continue to search until we're sure we've got everybody safe."

Appearing on CBS's The Early Show, Chertoff said: "We understand that for every single person there, even an hour seems like an eternity. We have to make sure we address those whose needs are the greatest first and then make sure we get everybody else."

- AP