Standing amid piles of waterlogged debris in Baton Rouge, President Obama on Tuesday promised a sustained national effort to rebuild flood-ravaged southern Louisiana — “even after the TV cameras leave” — on a visit aimed in part at stemming campaign-season criticism that he’s been too slow to respond to the disaster.
As he toured a battered neighborhood, Obama reassured residents that the federal response would be robust and tried to buck up beleaguered residents, many of whom have said they feel their plight has been ignored both by national officials and the mainstream media.
“This is not a one-off, this is not a photo-op issue,” the president told reporters. “I need all Americans to stay focused on this . . . I know you will rebuild again.”
The president has been criticized for waiting until after his vacation to tour the flooding. The timing, coming amid a heated White House campaign, drew criticism from some local officials and political opponents, including GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Trump visited Baton Rouge on Friday, allowing him to cast the president as golfing while Louisianans suffered.
Obama said that he doesn’t “worry too much about politics” and that he is focused on improving the speed and efficiency of the federal response.
Flooding has damaged some 60,000 homes and forced thousands to seek temporary housing. More than 115,000 people have registered for federal disaster aid. At least 40 state highways remain closed.
The president walked past mattresses, appliances and heaps of clothing tossed to the curb in a middle-class neighborhood in East Baton Rouge Parish, where few homes were spared from late-summer storms that killed at least 13 people in the region and displaced thousands.
Going door to door and trailed by cameras, he offered sympathy to residents as they took a break from the cleanup.
“I wish I was coming at a better time,” he told one resident as he put his arm around her. “But I’m glad to see everybody is safe, at least.”
Trump tweeted that Obama should have visited days earlier “instead of golfing. Too little, too late!”
