President Barack Obama said Friday that residents of the U.S. Gulf Coast still are trying to rebuild three years after Hurricane Katrina and have not received the support they deserve from Washington, according to AP. Katrina was blamed for more than 1,600 deaths and $41 billion in property damage. Obama promised a stepped-up and sustained commitment to the region. «The residents of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast who are helping rebuild are heroes who believe in their communities and they are succeeding despite the fact that they have not always received the support they deserve from the federal government,» Obama said in a statement. «We must ensure that the failures of the past are never repeated.»
