New Orleans on Wednesday mourned the huge losses inflicted by Hurricane Katrina two years ago, as US President George W. Bush sought to dispel lingering anger, vowing better days lay ahead.
Scores of tiny blue hand bells tinkled, as New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin led a poignant memorial service to the 1,500 dead along the Gulf Coast and remembered the devastation which laid waste whole communities.
Two years on, much of the city famed for its jazz and Creole cooking still lies abandoned after surging seas whipped up by the hurricane breached its levees on Aug. 29, 2005.
Bush, who was sharply criticized for failing to respond swiftly to the enormous tragedy unfolding before the nation's eyes, on Wednesday paid his 15th visit to the city since the storm hit.
"New Orleans, better days are ahead," he said during a visit to a school which was submerged under 5m to 6m of water. "When Hurricane Katrina broke through the levees, it broke a lot of hearts, it destroyed buildings, but it didn't affect the spirit of a lot of citizens in this community."
Bush later visited Bay St. Louis in neighboring Mississippi, a town also devastated by the hurricane.
Standing before a bridge being rebuilt after Katrina wrecked it, he promised the state's sufferings had not been forgotten and praised its reconstruction efforts, largely funded by federal aid.
"One of the reasons that [first lady] Laura and I have come back is to remind people that we haven't forgotten, and won't," he said, to applause. "I have come to this site ... to be able to show the American people that through their generosity, this infrastructure has been rebuilt."
In a separate ceremony led by Nagin in New Orleans, who has become a prominent US figure with his campaign to rebuild the city, tears flowed amid bitter memories of the storm which tore apart the Big Easy.
"It's been two years since the greatest natural disaster and man-made disaster our country has ever faced," he told the ceremony.
"Give us what we need to move forward or we'll figure it out ourselves," said Nagin, who had dined with Bush late on Tuesday at a popular Creole restaurant set to reopen after being rebuilt.
As the mayor spoke, a chain saw could be heard from a neighborhood nearby, evoking memories of weary residents cutting their way through storm-fallen trees.
At precisely 9:38am, the moment when authorities say the first levees crumbled, Nagin and the gathered mourners rang silver bells in remembrance of the dead.
A lone trumpeter, Irvin Mayfield, played a soulful rendition of a funeral dirge, A Closer Walk With Thee.
While parts of the city, such as the famous French Quarter, have managed to come back to life thanks to their higher elevation, much has been left to rot.
Some 80 percent of the city was left uninhabitable when Katrina struck and two years on some 42,250 families in Louisiana are still living in cramped government-supplied trailers.
Billions of dollars in federal aid remain wrapped up in bureaucratic red tape and blame is flying in all directions.
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