Bush, Cheney Will Not Attend GOP Convention Due to Hurricane

DEVELOPING: President Bush will skip the Republican National Convention on Monday and instead travel to Texas to meet with emergency workers and people who evacuated the Gulf Coast as Hurricane Gustav bore down.After a briefing Sunday from Federal Emergency Management Agency officials, Bush urged residents to heed local officials’ order to evacuate.“Do not put yourselves in harm’s way or make rescue workers take unnecessary risks,” he said.“And know that the American people stand with you. We’ll face this emergency together.”Bush said he had been assured that New Orleans’ levees are “stronger than they have ever been,” but that there is a “serious risk of significant flooding” across the Gulf Coast, especially in that city.“The message to the people of the Gulf Coast is this storm is dangerous,” he said.Vice President Dick Cheney will also not attend the convention on Monday as scheduled because of concerns over Hurricane Gustav, the White House announced Sunday. First Lady Laura Bush, however, is still expected to address delegates on the opening day.In a telephone call to New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Bush said he was “checking in and getting ready to go through this again with him,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. Nagin told Bush the forecast did not look good, but that he was pleased so far with the coordination with the federal government.Nagin also told Bush that residents were heeding the evacuation notice, roads were full and the elderly were getting the message to leave, Perino said.In addition, GOP presidential candidate John McCain, along with his wife, Cindy, and running mate Sarah Palin traveled to Jackson, Miss., on Sunday at the invitation of Gov. Haley Barbour because of concerns about people threatened by the storm. They were to receive a briefing at the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency-a permanent operations center monitoring hurricane response.Perino says the White House is working on possible alternatives that might allow the president to speak to the convention by video.Ahead of the storm, Bush pre-emptively declared states of emergency for Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama. The declaration clears the way for federal aid to supplement state and local efforts and formalizes coordination.Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and FEMA chief David Paulison have visited the region to monitor developments; Chertoff was returning there Sunday. Equipment and people were put in position and safe shelters readied, with cots, blankets and hygiene kits en route.Chertoff, who planned to remain in Baton Rouge, La., for the duration of the storm, said coordination among response officials was much better than it was during Katrina.But he acknowledged some shortcomings so far, including buses that had yet to arrive at evacuation points and last-minute decisions by hospitals to move critically ill patients out of the storm’s way.
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/08/31/bush-unlikely-to-attend-opening-of-gop-convention/

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