Offering words of encouragement and the promise of “ships coming in” with gas, President Bush toured fuel-thirsty South Florida on Thursday, meeting with local dignitaries and a storm-stunned public as the area lurched uncertainly toward recovery.
“Soon, more and more houses will have their electricity back on and life will get back to normal,” Bush told a crowd of nearly 100 waiting at a lunch distribution center in Pompano Beach. “In the meantime, the federal government, working with the state and local government, is responding as best as we possibly can.”
The presidential visit, lasting about three hours and including a stop at the National Hurricane Center west of Miami, came as local governments struggled to cope with dwindling fuel supplies and weary residents waited in seemingly endless lines for water, food, ice and gas. Earlier Thursday, one man died and nine others, including three firefighters, were hospitalized after a generator spewed carbon monoxide fumes in a Deerfield Beach home.
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While promising fresh supplies of ship-borne fuel, Bush acknowledged that the area’s problem wasn’t a lack of gasoline but rather the electrical power to pump it. “I know people are frustrated because they don’t have power on yet,” he said, sweating through a gray shirt. “Things don’t happen instantly. But things are happening.”
The president’s words came as cities were running short on gasoline. Supplies were becoming critical for police, nursing homes and hospitals. Sewage lift stations also were low on power, and teams scrambled to hook up generators from station to station to prevent sewage from backing up into toilets and bathtubs.
But more homes and businesses were regaining electricity. Only 1.8 million remained without power, down from 3.2 million just after Wilma’s passage. Also, Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport reopened Thursday.
Bush was accompanied on his visit by his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, in a 16-vehicle motorcade to the First Baptist Church in one of Pompano Beach’s poorest neighborhoods. Large tents had been erected for food distribution, and Bush was greeted with cheers by people lined up for a free lunch of pulled pork and potatoes.
“It’s an amazing spirit after a disaster,” Bush told the crowd. “And that spirit is a spirit of people willing to give up their time.”