To Laura Bush the survivors (and victims) of the hurricane are the human waste products of the society that enabled her to live a life of comfort and wealth. She has some sort of relationship to them--they are hanging on the metaphorical cross of iron and she benefits--but she is kind of uncomfortable and, likely much like Barbara, tries not to think about them too much although she's clearly not as successful as the "Beautiful Mind" herself. She sort of understands, in some shadowy sense, that these actually are human beings more or less similar to herself but (once again) can't bring herself to examine the sufferring they face without first examining her own role in their plight; something she seems likely to never do in the span of her life.

I don't think she has felt anything resembling pity, i think the closest she gets is feeling a bit uncomfortable having to be so close to the other side of the coin of her life. She shows up for the photo-ops because that is part of how she must live in order to retain her comfortable lifestyle in the big white palace but would really prefer to avoid it if she could get away with it.