AUSTIN (AP) — President Bush, trying to prove his administration has learned the haunting lessons of Katrina, flew to Texas for briefings on Hurricane Gustav, which hit land on Monday, battering the Gulf Coast with flood waters and more than 100 mph winds.

Bush had planned to address the Republican National Convention, but he headed instead to Austin and San Antonio in Texas, about 400 miles west of where the storm struck the Louisiana coast. He received an hourlong briefing aboard Air Force One and planned to learn more about the storm at a Texas Emergency Operations Center in Austin and a command center in San Antonio.

Asked if Bush was satisfied so far by the response of government at all levels, White House press secretary Dana Perino said: ‘‘Yes, so far.’’

David Paulison, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told reporters on the plane that there has been ‘‘unprecedented cooperation’’ among federal agencies and the private sector. ‘‘What it allows us to do is share information of what’s going on so we don’t end up with what happened in Katrina, with different agencies doing things and others not knowing what’s happening,’’ he said.

Paulison said the help came ahead of the storm time, significantly easing evacuations. Everyone in New Orleans who wanted to evacuate could have, Paulison said. ‘‘There should not be any excuses,’’ he said. ‘‘If people stayed in New Orleans, it was their choice.’’

The enduring memory of Katrina is not the ferocity of the storm, but the bungled reaction that led to preventable deaths and chaos. Disaster response has undoubtedly improved since then. But Katrina, which killed nearly 1,600 in 2005, was a low chapter in American history, and it deeply eroded credibility in Bush’s administration.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, greeted Bush as he got off the plane in shirtsleeves on a hot, sunny day in Texas.

By flying to Texas, Bush clearly wanted to show the nation, and particularly people of the Gulf Coast, that he is committed to answering their needs. He said he hopes to get to Louisiana, too, but will choose a time that does not interfere with emergency response efforts.

Gustav was downgraded to a Category 2 storm by mid-Monday morning. Katrina was a Category 3 storm when it hit the Gulf Coast three years ago, obliterating 90,000 square miles of property and costing billions of dollars in response and repairs.

First lady Laura Bush also was involved in the administration’s effort to stress that things would be different this time. ‘‘Mistakes were made by everyone’’ at all levels of government in the handling of Katrina, Mrs. Bush said Monday on CNN.

‘‘Part of it was not being able to have the good communication that you would need between the three governments,’’ said Mrs. Bush, who also was to speak Monday at the GOP convention. ‘‘And we have taken care of that, we know that’s a lot better. And the lessons that were learned from Katrina can serve the United States very well in any kind of disaster.’’

Levees in and around New Orleans were expected to hold this time, but the storm’s surge could overtop levees and at least partially flood the city, said Federal Emergency Management Agency Deputy Director Harvey E. Johnson.

Damage from Gustav ‘‘will be a catastrophe by the time you add it all up,’’ Johnson said in an interview with The Associated Press a few hours before landfall. ‘‘But we’re certainly not expecting it to be as much as a Katrina.’’

‘‘We don’t expect the loss of life, certainly, that we saw in Katrina,’’ he said. ‘‘But we are expecting a lot of homes to be damaged, a lot of infrastructure to be flooded, and damaged severely.’’

In appearances on morning network news shows, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said planning, preparation and early evacuations, especially of people in need, were successful. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt declared a public health emergency to ensure that people enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama continue to receive their health care items and services even after they leave their homes.

The hurricane wreaked havoc with the Republican convention in Minnesota, forcing Republicans to scale down the event. Bush canceled his scheduled appearance there Monday, and Perino, the White House spokesman, reiterated that Bush had no plans to attend. She said she had no update on whether Bush would address the convention in any other fashion.