Wouldn't want him to get his shoes dirty...

Wed Aug 31, 2005 2:48 PM ET
Reuters

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's plane swooped low over three states on Wednesday, giving him a somber view of the destruction left by Hurricane Katrina as he returned to Washington to oversee the U.S. government's response.

Air Force One descended to less than 3,000 feet (900 meters) over Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama to allow Bush to see some of the worst damage.

At 2,500 feet over New Orleans, the president and his aides could see the skin of the Superdome roof peeled back by the storm's fury.

"It's totally wiped out," Bush remarked as the modified Boeing 747 moved east past Slidell, a Louisiana community reduced to a pile of rubble and sticks.

"It's devastating, it's got to be doubly devastating on the ground," Bush said, according to his spokesman Scott McClellan. [...] Doubly devastating on the ground? You don't say... To read the rest, go to the Reuters web page, http://tinyurl.com/8ggsm


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