The Bush administration moved to quell a political storm yesterday by replacing the embattled head of emergency operations along the US Gulf Coast.
Rescue workers in New Orleans have now ended recovery efforts to focus on collecting bodies left by Hurricane Katrina.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced he was recalling Federal Emergency Management Agency head Michael Brown to Washington and appointing Vice Admiral Thad Allen, chief of staff of the US Coast Guard, to take charge of recovery operations in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
"We have to have seamless interaction with military forces," Mr Chertoff told a news conference in Baton Rouge. "Mike Brown has done everything he possibly could to coordinate the federal response to this unprecedented challenge. I appreciate his work, as does everybody here."
Mr Brown had been the target of furious bipartisan criticism for the government's slow initial response to the hurricane and some of both political parties have called for his firing. Mr Chertoff said he was now being asked to coordinate the response to other possible disasters.
Mr Bush is to make his third post-hurricane visit to the Gulf Coast on Sunday and vice president Dick Cheney is to make a second trip to the region on Saturday.