Blanco tours New Orleans

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Gov. Kathleen Blanco, who last week criticized the size and speed of the federal government's relief efforts following Hurricane Katrina, toured New Orleans on Wednesday with federal and state military commanders and pronounced herself pleased with the state of the relief effort. I think we have stability. I think the aid is at an appropriate level,” Blanco said. “We see a very strong federal effort.”

The governor repeated her initial frustrations with the pace of federal relief efforts – “We wanted everything yesterday,” she said - and brushed off suggestions that she did not act quickly enough in asking President Bush to send federal troops. Blanco said she first made such a request in a telephone conversation with the president on the morning of Aug. 28, moments before Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans. ”I told him (Bush) we would need all the help we could get,” she said. But she said she did not give the president a “checklist” of the resources needed, she said.

Bob Mann, Blanco's communications director, said the governor also tried contacting Bush two days later, to ask for more help. Three days after that, Blanco received a written request from the Bush administration asking that the entire military relief effort be federalized under the command of Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who heads Joint Task Force Katrina. Blanco rejected that request and opted to keep the current arrangement in which federal troops report to Honore and guard troops are under the command of Maj. Gen. Bennett Landreneau, who leads the Louisiana National Guard.

Blanco and military officials took pains Wednesday to show that the arrangement is working well, and that there is no discord between the two commands. Before touring the city, Blanco, Lanreneau and Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu attended a closed-door briefing by Honore on the U.S.S. Iwo-Jima, where federal troops are headquartered. ”We are a unified command” of state, local and federal officials, Blanco said.

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