Obama tours flood damage in Louisiana, rejects criticism of being late

Criticized for being late to visit flood-ravaged Louisiana, President Obama toured the damage in Baton Rouge on Tuesday and met with relatives of police officers and a black man killed last month during the city’s tensions tied to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Arriving in a flooded-out neighborhood four days after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump visited the region, Mr. Obama said he wasn’t too worried about criticism that he had neglected flood victims while he was vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

“I guarantee nobody on this block, none of those first responders, nobody gives a hoot whether you’re a Democrat or Republican,” Mr. Obama told reporters after touring damaged homes in East Baton Rouge parish.

The president coupled his tour of the flood zone with private meetings with the family of Alton Sterling, a black man whose fatal shooting by police on July 5 sparked protests, and with relatives of three Baton Rouge law-enforcement officers who were killed by a black gunman sympathetic to the BLM movement.

Baton Rouge Police Officers Montrell Jackson and Matthew Gerald and East Baton Rouge sheriff’s Deputy Brad Garafola died in the ambush July 17, and three other officers were wounded.

The White House rejected claims that Mr. Trump forced the president into visiting the state. Mr. Obama said the families displaced by floodwaters are concerned only about “making sure they’re getting the drywall out and the carpet out and there’s not any mold building, and they get some contractors in here and they start rebuilding as quick as possible.”

“That’s what they care about, and that’s what I care about,” Mr. Obama said.

Many Louisianans and the city’s leading newspaper criticized Mr. Obama last week for failing to interrupt his summer vacation to tour the flood zone. Mr. Trump and running mate Mike Pence visited the state Friday, and the presidential nominee slammed the president for golfing instead of visiting with flood victims.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, Louisiana Republican who is supporting Mr. Trump, said the nominee’s visit ahead of the president “focused national attention which had been lacking.”

“It doesn’t take a cynic to suggest that it may have triggered some other visits,” Mr. Cassidy said, adding that part of the federal response should be in community development block grants.

Asked about the criticism that he was late to the crisis, Mr. Obama replied: “One of the benefits of being five months short of leaving here is I don’t worry too much about politics. When disasters strike, that’s probably one of the few times where Washington tends not to get political.”

But the president himself couldn’t help but draw comparisons to the federal response during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, regarded as one of the worst domestic failures of George W. Bush’s presidency. Mr. Obama praised FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, whom he appointed, for “a change of culture” at the agency.

“I want the people of Louisiana to know is that you’re not alone on this, even after the TV cameras leave,” Mr. Obama said. “The whole country is going to continue to support you and help you until we get folks back in their homes and lives are rebuilt. That’s what Americans do in times like this. I saw this when I visited this place … when I came down here as a senator after Katrina. I saw it when I visited New Orleans for the 10th anniversary last year.”

Mr. Obama signed a federal disaster declaration for the state a week ago. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and other agencies have provided $127 million in aid for cleanup and recovery. Mr. Obama said FEMA has enough money for now to cover the costs, but Congress might be called on later to approve additional emergency aid.

More than 60,000 homes and businesses were damaged by the severe flooding, and at least 13 people were killed.

The Advocate newspaper in Baton Rouge originally criticized Mr. Obama for not cutting short his vacation in Martha’s Vineyard to visit the region, while he was playing several rounds of golf. The paper’s editorial board said Tuesday that the president’s visit “should help to advance relief and recovery in the disaster area as a national priority.”

Perspiring as he met neighbors cleaning out their homes, Mr. Obama told several residents, “I wish I was coming in better times.”