ERATH — Sen. Mary Landrieu sharply criticized President George W. Bush on Saturday for failing to provide an adequate levee protection and floodgate system for vulnerable residents in South Louisiana, calling the state “a sitting duck” and vowing to push for dramatic reform with the current president and his successor.

“He has given piecemeal time and attention for a levee here, a levee there, but he has not stepped up to lead the effort in restoring America’s energy coast,” she said during a brief stop in New Iberia. “Until the current president recognizes the vulnerability of Americans in this area and accelerates the funding for revenue sharing and dramatically changes the way the Corps of Engineers operates, this will happen again.” 

Landrieu also toured the inundated towns of Delcambre and Erath on Saturday in a motorcade of National Guard vehicles loaded with state and local officials and a handful of reporters. Landrieu likened the flooding she saw in Delcambre to that of Hurricane Rita and said it was unacceptable for such a catastrophe to happen again so soon.

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“It’s hard to believe this is happening again,” she told reporters in the Erath Municipal Complex. “I think people who went through Katrina and Rita thought it’s a once in a lifetime catastrophe and here we are with another catastrophe three years later. No one deserves to have this happen once in their life, let alone twice.”

Landrieu, who is running for re-election this November, promised to “not to rest” before securing a stream of federal revenue to rebuild and protect South Louisiana.

“If anybody says we don’t need levees, floodgates, barrier islands, coastal restoration, they are wrong,” she said. “We need it all and we need it now.”

During the four-hour tour, Landrieu spoke with Delcambre Mayor Carol Broussard about the need to streamline a state-led homeowners assistance program that would allow residents affected by Hurricane Ike to receive money more quickly than in 2005 when Hurricane Rita devastated the area.

“A lot of painful lessons have been learned from Katrina and Rita,” she said. “FEMA has been radically reformed and that will result in much swifter recovery.”

In Erath, Landrieu met briefly with Gov. Bobby Jindal and local officials at City Hall, which had been turned into an ad hoc headquarters for state police, National Guard and first responders. Jindal, who was also touring the region and landed in Abbeville, said in a brief interview with The Daily Iberian that while he had seen some improvements in the federal response to Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, there were still several major shortcomings three years after Rita and Katrina wreaked havoc in the state.

“The commodities didn’t arrive as quickly as we would have liked,” he said. “But even when things didn’t work out the way they were supposed to, at least they were flexible and let us address these problems. The bottom line is: Pointing fingers doesn’t help. We’ve all got a lot of work to do to get the state back on its feet.”

Jindal said more than 20 helicopters had been deployed to conduct search and rescue operations in other parishes and commended neighboring states for lending a hand in the recovery efforts. “I’ve seen a strong, resilient group of people helping out,” he said. “We’ll come back stronger from this storm than before.”

Landrieu said she planned to speak with Bush later this weekend and said Ike should serve as another wake-up call for America.

“Not only our we losing money and businesses but we are losing our way of life,” she said. “These storms are decimating our culture and our community and it has got to come to an end.”