CAMERON, Louisiana (CNN) -- President Bush traveled to Texas and Louisiana on Tuesday to get a closer look at widespread devastation from Hurricane Rita, which virtually wiped out some coastal communities.
As Bush's helicopter flew overhead, John LeBlanc, the assistant emergency preparedness director for Louisiana's Cameron Parish, said he would like to deliver a simple message to the president.
"We need help. We need the same sort of help a big city like New Orleans is getting," LeBlanc said.
Bush's helicopter made two passes at high altitude over Cameron, near the site of Hurricane Rita's weekend landfall, as part of his latest trip to the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast. The president toured battered towns in Texas with Gov. Rick Perry and met with Louisiana officials in Lake Charles, which suffered extensive damage when Rita struck with 120 mph winds on Saturday.
Bush said victims of Hurricane Rita would be eligible for $2,000 per household in emergency aid, just as victims of Hurricane Katrina were offered after it hit southeastern Louisiana and Mississippi on Aug. 29. He acknowledged the frustrations of those who have been unable to return home but urged them not to return yet.
"Now's not the time to come back until they get the utilities up and running, until they can get the sewers up and running and until they can get some water for people to drink," Bush said in an appearance with local officials, the heads of federal relief efforts and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco.
Nine deaths have been blamed on Rita -- eight in Texas and one in Mississippi. That number grew Tuesday when authorities in Liberty County reported two more deaths -- two people killed when a house fell on them during the storm, Sheriff's Department Capt. Billy Tidwell said.
Another 24 people died Friday -- before the storm hit -- when a bus evacuating nursing home residents caught fire on Interstate 45 south of Dallas.
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