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"We are heartbroken by the loss of life," Obama said after seeing firsthand the damage in the state's capital that has caused more than 106,000 residents and households to register for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. More than 60,000 homes were damaged, officials said, and 13 people were killed.

"I think anybody who can see just the streets, much less the inside of the homes here, people's lives have been upended by this flood," he added.

The flooding has created political headache for the White House as critics blasted Obama for being too slow to visit the state. He spent the previous week vacationing on Martha's Vineyard, while Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his vice presidential running mate, Mike Pence, visited the state and handed out supplies.

"Tuesday's too late," Trump told Fox News this weekend. "Hop into the plane and go down and go to Louisiana and see what's going on, because it's a mess."

The city's newspaper, "The Advocate," originally criticized the President for not ending his vacation in Martha's Vineyard immediately to visit the region. But the editorial board praised his decision to come Tuesday.

Trump's visit was well-received by local officials, and for a moment it gave Trump a chance to reveal a presidential timber that he insists he has.

"Because it helped to shine a spotlight on Louisiana and on the dire situation that we have here, it was helpful," said John Bel Edwards, the state's Democratic governor.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest on Air Force One defended the timing of the trip, saying the "President is used to people trying to score political points even in situations where they shouldn't."

Earnest said that $120 million in aid has already been approved and is starting to be paid out to flood-impacted residents.

Edwards, who greeted Obama when he landed Tuesday, had previously said that he hoped the President would wait a few weeks before making his visit to the state, given the entourage and Secret Service personnel that comes with presidential trips that would have strained resources while officials were coping with the floods.

Hillary Clinton, Trump's Democratic opponent, said Monday that she too plans a trip to the flood site. Her campaign said in a statement that she would come to the state at an unspecified time in the future.

"This month's floods in Louisiana are a crisis that demand a national response," she said. "I am committed to visiting communities affected by these floods, at a time when the presence of a political campaign will not disrupt the response, to discuss how we can and will rebuild together."

Obama also met Tuesday with family members of police officers killed in last month's Baton Rouge attack. Three Baton Rouge area police officers were killed last month when they were ambushed by a gunman. That gunman, Gavin Long, was shot and killed by police.

Obama's vacation ended Sunday, and the White House has maintained that he has been regularly briefed by senior staff on the situation on the ground and top administration officials also were sent to the Louisiana. Yet his response has earned some comparisons to how George W. Bush handled another natural catastrophe in a Louisiana city, New Orleans, during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Obama has traveled to disaster sites in recent years, touring communities in Oklahoma and Arkansas destroyed by tornadoes along with New Jersey towns hit by Hurricane Sandy.

Residents such as Denham Springs' Todd Krichel are still grappling with the scale of the destruction.

Krichel told CNN's Nick Valencia he had lost a classic car he had been holding onto for years, a motorcycle he had been working on since the early 1980s and a family Bible from the late 1800s in the deluge.

"I pulled in this street this morning and a wave hit me and it just, I broke down, you know (what) I'm saying," Krichel said outside his house. "It just, all my friends, family all our friends on this street, look at it. ... And I pulled down there and it was pretty tough to swallow."

Although Krichel said he did not want to evoke politics, he agreed Obama should have visited the stricken area earlier.

"I think it's great that Trump came into town to show his support. I think that's a good thing that he did that, to tell you the truth," he said.

But while residents such as Baton Rouge's Marie Sibley pleaded to Obama "to just help us," others like Albany's Catherine Murphy were less optimistic.

"There ain't nothing he can do for us that Louisiana ain't done for ourselves," Murphy said. "I've got no help from the federal government. I ain't asking for help from the government. Baby, let me tell you my community has come through."

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story included a photo that incorrectly identified Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter.

CNN's Eugene Scott and Naomi Lim contributed to this report.

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Obama tours Louisiana amid criticism that he's late ...

President Obama so far has no plans to cut short his 16-day vacation in Martha's Vineyard to visit flood-affected Louisiana.

The White House is emphasizing the massive response led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to assist in recovery efforts, which has received praise from Louisiana's Gov. John Bel Edwards.

However, some critics are looking to connect what they see as a lackluster response compared to former President George W. Bush's handling of Hurricane Katrina.

"If the president can interrupt his vacation for a swanky fundraiser for fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton, as he did on Monday, then surely he can make time to show up for a catastrophe thats displaced thousands," the editorial board of The Advocate wrote on Thursday.

GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump is likely to seize on the sentiment as he visits the state this morning to meet with local officials. Hillary Clinton has not announced her plans in regards to visiting the area, but earlier tweeted that she is "closely monitoring" the situation.

"The optics of Obama golfing while Louisiana residents languished in flood waters was striking," the editorial board said. "It evoked the precedent of the passive federal response to the states agony in 2005, a chapter of history no one should ever repeat."

However, Gov. Edwards defended the administration's response yesterday evening saying the president's visit could be disruptive in having to redirect law enforcement resources to handle security.

If the president visits, Edwards said, he should wait at least two weeks.

White House officials say Obama has continued to receive updates throughout the week and point to the resources mobilized on the ground in Louisiana.

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Critics Call for Obama to Cut Vacation Short to Visit Flood ...

President Obama enjoys a round of golf with NBA star Chris Paul while on vacation at Martha's Vineyard. (Reuters)

Two important things happened today in the political world of President Obama.

The first was that the Advocate, a Louisiana newspaper chain,published an editorial calling on the president to come to the state to see the horrible flooding first-hand. It read, in part:

Weve seen this story before in Louisiana, and we dont deserve a sequel. In 2005, a fly-over by a vacationing President George W. Bush became a symbol of official neglect for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The current president was among those making political hay out of Bushs aloofness.

Sometimes, presidential visits can get in the way of emergency response, doing more harm than good. But we dont see that as a factor now that flood waters are subsiding, even if at an agonizing pace. Its past time for the president to pay a personal visit, showing his solidarity with suffering Americans.

Tough stuff, right?

The second thing that happened was this tweet.

Cue outrage.

The I-can't-believe-he-is-on-vacation-while-terrible-news-event-happens narrative is neither new nor unique to Obama. George W. Bush was regularly pilloried by his political opponents for extended vacations at his ranch in Crawford, Tex. (Bush once took a five-week break during the summer of 2005.)

And, as has been documented ad nauseam, there's really no such thing as a vacation for a president of the United States.Presidents dont get vacations they just get a change of scenery, Nancy Reagan famously told critics of her husband's regular trips to the family's ranch. Work, especially in this digital age, follows you around.

Still, it's worth noting this moment. And that's because it speaks to Obama's unique and long-lasting commitment to not playing by a core rule of modern politics: making at least some decisions based on "how it looks" and/or "how it will play."

Obama has long been a rejectionist on this front. His stubborn refusal to rebut claims regarding what was in the Affordable Care Act badly hamstrung his party's attempt to win the fight for public perception on the law. His unwillingness to say the words "radical Islamic terror" have become a hobbyhorse for conservatives andRepublican presidential nominee Donald Trump. And so on and so forth.

Obama just doesn't like to fake it. If he doesn't want to do something or thinks it's stupid to do it regardless of whether it actually is stupid he won't do it.This riff in response to Republican criticism of how Obama describes the threat posed by the Islamic State militant group, which is also known as ISIS and ISIL,captures his view on perception politics nicely:

For a while now, the main contribution of some of my friends on the other side of the aisle have made in the fight against ISIL is to criticize this administration and me for not using the phrase radical Islam. Thats the key, they tell us we cant beat ISIL unless we call them radical Islamists. What exactly would using this label accomplish? What exactly would it change? Would it make ISIL less committed to trying to kill Americans? Would it bring in more allies? Is there a military strategy that is served by this? The answer is none of the above. Calling a threat by a different name does not make it go away. This is a political distraction...

...There has not been a moment in my seven and a half years as president where we have not been able to pursue a strategy because we didnt use the label "radical Islam." Not once has an adviser of mine said, man, if we really use that phrase, we're going to turn this whole thing around. Not once. So if someone seriously thinks that we dont know who we're fighting, if there's anyone out there who thinks we're confused about who our enemies are, that would come as a surprise to the thousands of terrorists who we've taken off the battlefield.

He's genuinely angry not an emotion you see all that much from any politician at that level but particularly the usually calm and professorial Obama. And he's angrybecause in Obama's mind the sort of performance-for-the-sake-of-performance that Republicans are demanding is everything that's wrong with politics.

(Nota bene: For all of you "ALL HE DOES IS PERFORM" readers, I know that is a view of Obama that many people hold. I am not blind to it. But this piece is about how Obama thinks of himself. Not how you or I think of him. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.)

That's why Obama won't break off his vacation in Martha's Vineyard or stop playing golf on said vacation to travel to Louisiana. Because he believes he can monitor the situation as well or better from where he is. And that the sole reason to go to Louisiana is for the theatrical piece of politics, a piece that he not only rejects but detests.

The Ash family has been through hurricanes Katrina and Isaac. They are once again trying to rebuild their lives after another natural disaster destroyed their home. (Paavo Hanninen,Zac Manuel/The Washington Post)

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Heres why President Obama isnt stopping his vacation to ...

President George W. Bush was torn to shreds in 2005 by mainstream media commentators for his initial response to Hurricane Katrina yet President Obamas detached response to the recent Louisiana floods has been met with resounding silence from those same outlets.

George Bush doesnt care about black people was the shocking charge by singer Kanye West about President Bushs response to Katrina. Wests was a particularly blunt assessment, but echoed a growing narrative pushed by mainstream media outlets that Bushs response was out of touch, inept and most of all, he didnt care about people on the ground.

Much of the media coverage at the time not only criticized Bush for the difficulties the federal government faced in responding to the disaster, but also lambasted him for taking too long to return from vacation and to visit the site on the ground.

When he did return early from vacation, just two days after the disaster hit, he faced further criticism for flying over New Orleans on his way back to Washington D.C. before flying out to visit the victims of the tragedy.

Mainstream media condemned Bushs alleged lack of compassion, immediately predicting it would destroy his entire legacy. A USA Today article written at the time summarized it this way:

President Bush has shown that he can be empathetic, sensitive and decisive. But those qualities eluded him for days after Hurricane Katrina, and the lapse could become a defining moment of his White House tenure, the analysis said.

The Washington Post would later go on to brand Bushs response the second worst moment of his entire presidency.

Such concerns have been almost entirely absent from media coverage of the Louisiana floods in recent days. At least 13 people have died, while at least 85,000 have registered for disaster aid.

While nowhere near as devastating as the hurricane, the floods have wrought significant destruction on the area. Meanwhile, Obamas response has been significantly more tepid than Bushs.

Obama has still not returned from his vacation at Marthas Vineyard, and the White House said Thursday Obama would spend the day golfing. While a White House spokeswoman said the president also spoke with FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate to get an update after Fugate's visit to the area, there are currently no confirmed plans for Obama to end his vacation early.

A local paper has been one of the few voices to criticize Obamas response, reflecting growing annoyance at his response on the ground. In particular, it took aim at Obamas decision to attend a Hillary Clinton fundraiser Monday.

[I]f the president can interrupt his vacation for a swanky fundraiser for fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton, as he did on Monday, then surely he can make time to show up for a catastrophe thats displaced thousands, the editorial in The Advocate said.

The optics of Obama golfing while Louisiana residents languished in flood waters was striking. It evoked the precedent of the passive federal response to the states agony in 2005, a chapter of history no one should ever repeat, the paper wrote.

So far, there have been no mainstream media outlets criticizing Obamas apparent lack of response, nor have there been any celebrities claiming Obama doesnt care about the people on the ground.

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BIAS ALERT: Media that ripped Bush on Katrina ignores Obama ...

"A disaster this big begs for the personal presence of the President at ground zero," read the editorial published in The Advocate on Thursday. "In coming here, the President can decisively demonstrate that Louisiana's recovery is a priority for his administration -- and the United States of America."

"The President's vacation is scheduled to wrap up on Sunday. But he should pack his bags now, and pay a call on communities who need to know that in a national catastrophe, they are not alone," read the column. "The President's presence is already late to this crisis, but it's better later than never."

Calling Obama's vacation destination "a playground for the posh and well-connected," the paper said that the waters had receded enough to allow for a presidential visit.

Before emerging from his vacation compound Wednesday for a round of golf, Obama spoke with FEMA administrator Craig Fugate, who had been dispatched to view the damage caused by two feet of rain which fell at the end of last week.

On Thursday, Obama's Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson was set visit the region to "review the ongoing response," the White House said.

But as of Thursday morning, there were no announced plans for Obama to cut his vacation short, nor was Obama planning to address the flooding in an in-person statement.

Earlier in the week, Obama phoned the state's governor, John Bel Edwards, shortly after approving the Democrat's request for federal disaster funding. The White House said Obama's top homeland security official Lisa Monaco, traveling with him on Martha's Vineyard, was updating him on new developments, along with other aides.

The federal assistance structure is the result of an overhaul after a widely maligned response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Congress passed legislation a year after the storm that allowed FEMA to work more closely with local and state governments in administering aid.

Like Obama, President George W. Bush was on vacation as Katrina devastated parts of Louisiana. He cut his stay at his Texas ranch short by two days to return to Washington -- assessing the flooding from above on Air Force One during the return trip. Despite those efforts, Bush's response to Katrina was viewed as inadequate, and Bush himself acknowledged the period inflicted lasting damage on his reputation as commander in chief.

In the editorial on Thursday, The Advocate warned Obama against repeating Bush's mistakes.

"We've seen this story before in Louisiana, and we don't deserve a sequel," the paper wrote. "In 2005, a fly-over by a vacationing President George W. Bush became a symbol of official neglect for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The current president was among those making political hay out of Bush's aloofness."

When presidents travel on vacation, the job of running the federal government is never far away. Aides and secure communication equipment are all moved to the getaway destination to ensure that updates and briefings can continue apace.

Obama has been loath to interrupt his vacations for public appearances, however, and said during a Monday night fundraiser for Hillary Clinton that first lady Michelle Obama typically insists he avoid working.

"Michelle is very strict about me actually taking a vacation when I get a vacation," he said. "She gave me a special dispensation for this evening because she understands, just as all of you understand, how important this is."

The newspaper editorial said Thursday that "if the President can interrupt his vacation for a swanky fundraiser for fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton, as he did on Monday, then surely he can make time to show up for a catastrophe that's displaced thousands."

The paper praised the work of FEMA, calling it a "far cry" from the bungled response to Katrina. The agency said on Wednesday it was providing federal aid to assist with rental payments for temporary housing, grants for home repairs and property replacement, unemployment assistance for Louisiana residents who lost jobs due to the flooding, and assistance to small businesses affected by the rising waters.

More than 70,000 people had registered for individual assistance since the federal disaster was declared, and more than 9,000 had filed flood insurance claims, according to the federal disaster agency.

Obama's formula for responding to federal disasters has remained largely the same in the past several years, typically including a phone call to the governor and approval of requests for federal assistance. In some cases, he's traveled to communities hit by natural disasters, including viewing tornadoes in Oklahoma and Arkansas, and viewed destruction in New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the political party of Louisiana's governor. John Bel Edwards is a Democrat.

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LA paper to Obama: Cut vacation short - CNNPolitics.com