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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Former President George W. Bush returned Friday to New Orleans — the scene of one of his presidency's lowest points — to praise the region's recovery from America's costliest natural disaster on the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
He met with students at Warren Easton Charter High School, the same school he visited on the first anniversary of the catastrophic storm. He was accompanied by his wife, Laura, whose library foundation helped rebuild what is the oldest public school in New Orleans.
The school's success is one of the president's brighter moments in what was an extremely trying time for the Bush administration. Bush was vilified for his government's lackluster response.
A series of faux pas — from flying over flooded New Orleans first on Air Force One to his "Heckuva job, Brownie" quip in support of the soon-to-be-dismissed director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Michael Brown— marred his personal record.
Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University and author of "The Great Deluge," a detailed account of the first days after Katrina, said the hurricane became a "confluence of blunders" from which Bush would never recover. "That's when I think his presidency started on a downward trend."
In New Orleans, Bush and his team became a source of deep resentment and mockery — displayed in effigy at Carnival displays for years after Katrina.
The Bushes were greeted Friday by New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and former Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco, who fought hard to get federal aid during Katrina.
Later Friday, they visited Gulfport, Mississippi, to attend an event thanking first responders
The bulk of the region's rebuilding fell to the Bush administration, which oversaw more than $140 billion on the disaster, his office said. Bush frequently said rebuilding was best left to locals.
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