Hurricane Katrina anniversary: Former US president George W Bush visits New

Trent Lott and current U.S. Sen.

“Katrina came in different forms”, Duhon said. And amidst all the heartbreak and utter destruction, what struck us most was the resilience and spirit of the people we all met. “They’re our southern family”.

Bush said that because of the success the New Orleans schools have had after Katrina, it sends a message to all Americans that the city is “back and better than ever.” More than $14 billion has been spent to reinforce levees that failed to protect New Orleans. “You’ve made a lot”. Again there are long lines of people waiting to get into Acme Oyster House, and a ride on the St. Charles Streetcar takes you through neighborhoods full of life as if nothing had happened. He says many were motivated by faith.

One Twitter post, retweeted more than 700 times said, “It is the shamelessness of deep privilege that allows George W. Bush to return to New Orleans to discuss Katrina this weekend”.

In a speech that focused on the city’s educational transformation, Bush praised charter schools and school choice.

President Bush took a tenth anniversary tour of the Gulf Coast areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.

The city’s four-year graduation rate has since climbed to 73 per cent. Many parents lament the loss of neighbourhood schools, and question teacher qualifications, saying some lack experience and certification.

Dozens of communities from Florida through Louisiana were pounded by the winds, or washed away by the surge as the Category Three hurricane made landfall, but the full magnitude of the storm wasn’t clear until a day or so later when the force of the water unexpectedly overwhelmed levees across New Orleans.

Bush met with students in the school’s gymnasium, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and former Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco.

His wife was wearing a purple dress, in honor of the school’s colors. “A city where everyone, no matter what they look like, how much money they got, where they come from, where they’re born, has a chance to make it”, Obama said.

Hurricane Katrina decimated New Orleans and large swaths of the Gulf Coast 10 years ago.

He’s also coming to tout the region’s recovery from the costliest natural disaster in the nation.

The former president gave an address Friday morning at a local high school, which he also visited on the first anniversary of the storm, while still in office.

Easton is one of 46 schools across the city that received funds from a foundation set up by Laura Bush to rebuild schools’ libraries devastated by the storm. He was widely criticized for not visiting the city immediately after floods inundated 80% of the city and leading what’s been considered a clumsy and slow-footed initial federal response to the disaster. The couple then traveled to Gulfport, Mississippi, to attend an event thanking first responders.