New Orleans took a big step towards recovery from Hurricane Katrina on Thursday, when its mayor declared parts of the city would reopen at the weekend, as President George W. Bush prepared to announce a major rebuilding operation for the devastated Gulf region.
Mayor Ray Nagin said business people could return to the historic French Quarter, the central business district and the uptown and Algiers neighbourhoods on Saturday, almost three weeks after the August 29 storm flooded most of the city. Residents of those areas would be allowed to return in the following days in a phased process.
"It is a good day in New Orleans. The sun is shining. We're bringing New Orleans back. This is our first step. We are opening up this city and almost 200,000 residents will be able to come back and get this city going once again," Nagin said.
"We're starting to bring New Orleans back culturally, we're starting to bring New Orleans back from our people standpoint and we're staring to bring New Orleans back from the unique things that make New Orleans what it is," he said. The French Quarter stands on slightly higher ground and was less affected by the storm, than much of the rest of the city, which is below sea-level.
The city of 450,000 turned into a ghost town after levees protecting it from flooding gave way after the hurricane. In many poor neighbourhoods, which tend to be on lower ground, the water has still not completely retreated. The hurricane killed more than 700 people in the US Gulf coast region and displaced 1 million people.
Lieutenant General Carl Strock, commander of the US Army Corps of Engineers, told a Pentagon briefing some breaches in the levees protecting the city had still not been repaired.
"We're working nine levee breaks right now," he said. Some were complete breaks while in other cases, the levee was "slightly degraded."
A Reuters reporter saw cleanup operations moving swiftly in the business district on Thursday where streets were lined with buses, cars, recovery vehicles and equipment to remove debris.
Bush was preparing to announce a recovery plan while trying to reassure Americans their government could respond to new terrorist emergencies, despite major lapses over the storm.
Bush was to unveil his plan in a televised prime-time address, after two weeks of battling bipartisan criticisms and making a rare admission of government failures in what may be the United States' costliest natural disaster.
Polls show the faltering response at all levels of authority to the hurricane has weakened public confidence both in Bush and in the government's ability to protect them - a major theme of the president's 2004 reelection campaign.
A New York Times/CBS poll found 56 percent of Americans were less confident about the government's ability to respond to future emergencies, whether man-made or natural.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush would unveil initiatives on education, job training, help for small businesses including minority-owned businesses and measures to address the housing needs of those displaced by the storm.
The US Congress has already approved $62.3 billion in aid for the region, and a key lawmaker said this week that Bush could ask for another $50 billion within a month.
The White House said Bush would not give a long-term cost estimate for the recovery plan.
Some members of Congress have estimated the federal cost of the recovery could reach close to $200 billion, making it the costliest natural disaster in US history.
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