Bush Outlines Plan to Rebuild Katrina Devastated Areas

President Bush tonight gave the nation an overview of his plan to rebuild New Orleans and other areas of the Gulf Coast devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Bush promised that the rebuilding effort would be totally funded by the federal government.

"Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes. We will stay as long as it takes to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives," said President Bush in a nationally televised address. "There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again."

Referring to the reconstruction of an area in which over a million residents had been displaced as "one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen," Bush also stated that lessons learned from Katrina had established detailed emergency planning throughout the nation as a "national security priority."

Addressing criticism of slow and inadequate response to Katrina, Bush concede that the government's "normal disaster relief effort" was not up to the task. "It was not a normal hurricane, and the normal disaster relief system was not equal to it," he said.

Bush recommend passage of an Urban Homesteading Act, which would make federally-owned lands in the damaged areas available free of charge to poor families through a lottery. The families would in turn fund new homes by securing mortgages or financial help through a charity like Habitat for Humanity.

"In a time of terror threats and weapons of mass destruction, the danger to our citizens reaches much wider than a fault line or a flood plain," said President Bush.

While Bush did not offer a dollar figure, some members of Congress have estimated that the recovery of devastated areas could cost in excess of $200 billion, thus making Hurricane Katrina the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history.

Complete transcript of President Bush's speech...