Four Lawrence residents who have visited the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina hit gave mixed reviews to President Bush’s address Thursday in which he called for the rebuilding of the ravaged region.

“I think it was an excellent pep talk,” Corinne Zimmers said. “But looking at the faces of the people in the shelters, they still had that kind of blank look.”

Zimmers was a nurse at Meadowcrest Hospital, about 5 miles southeast of downtown New Orleans. She could not leave the hospital until four days after Katrina hit. She is now back in Lawrence with her two daughters.

While Zimmers has grown tired of news coverage about the hurricane’s blow to Bush’s popularity, she said she thought the president’s speech was “heartfelt.”

And rebuilding will be daunting.

“It’s a big project, and people can’t depend just on the federal government. Some of it is up to the states. Everybody wants to point fingers,” she said.

Another Lawrence resident was more skeptical of the president’s motives.

“I really feel that the president is just trying to cover for what happened so early on and how poor the response was,” Kalila Dalton said.

“He’s just trying to save his political reputation,” she said later.

Dalton was one Lawrence resident who thought her trip to Biloxi, Miss., was to help hurricane victims. She left her job when she found out it was to clean up a casino.

Dalton believes that rebuilding the region is possible.

“The aid is definitely fantastic, and I hope he follows through with that,” she said.

Cathy Reid, a Bush supporter, called the speech “awesome.” She said the president’s call to action matched the efforts she saw from military and law enforcement last weekend in Mississippi.

Reid drove with her husband, Eddie, to Bay St. Louis, Miss., and brought back her mother, Gloria Madere. Madere was living in a senior citizens center for shelter. Sixteen Lawrence people donated money and items that Reid took to hurricane victims, she said.

“I liked the fact that he said New Orleans will rebuild and come back strong,” she said of her birthplace. “I know it. It’s in their blood.”

A Lawrence Catholic priest supported rebuilding the region, but he said federal agencies should do more to assist evacuees.

“It’s a good idea, but what about the people relocating somewhere else?” The Rev. Joseph Tung Dang said.

Dang has made two trips to the Gulf Coast and is trying to find Lawrence housing for Asian families from the area.