KEY POINTS:
ENTERPRISE, Alabama - US president George Bush got a first-hand look this morning (NZ time) at the damage from deadly tornadoes in the southern United States and said while buildings could be rebuilt the biggest impact was on shattered lives.
Bush got an aerial view of the region by helicopter and walked over glass-strewn rubble at Enterprise High School where eight students were killed when the storms struck on Thursday. Enterprise was in the area of Alabama that was hardest hit.
"Today I have walked through devastation that is hard to describe," Bush said after touring the school, including the hallway where the students were killed.
He pointed to the twisted metal remains of the science wing where 100 students were trapped but survived, and said, "One hundred kids got out of here alive, which is a miracle."
Bush approved a disaster declaration for the county where Enterprise is located which allows victims to apply for up to US$28,200 in federal assistance per household.
His visit to the region two days after the tornadoes struck came on the heels of a visit to the Gulf Coast on Thursday to check on rebuilding efforts for the area devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when the government's initial response to that disaster was sharply criticized as slow and inadequate.
David Paulison, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency which was criticized for its response to Katrina, said it was important to assess the damage quickly to make sure that local and state governments did not get overwhelmed in trying to cope with the disaster.
Paulison emphasized his agency's quick response, saying he had been on the phone with state officials shortly after the tornadoes struck, started moving in truckloads of supplies and communications equipment immediately, and had teams on the ground just a few hours after the storms hit.
NEW FEMA
"That's the new FEMA," Paulison told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Alabama from Washington. "The system we used in the past, waiting for a local community to become overwhelmed before the state steps in, and waiting for the state to become overwhelmed before the federal government steps in, doesn't work."
Bush received a briefing on the Alabama tornado damage when he arrived and called on Americans to contribute to funds like the Red Cross which will help the victims of the storms. He later met with families of the victims.
Tornadoes that swept across the southern United States on Thursday killed at least 20 people in three states -- 10 in Alabama, nine in Georgia, and one in Missouri. They came just a month after a tornado killed about 20 people in central Florida.
Analysts say tens of thousands of people remain displaced 18 months after Katrina struck and more than half of the schools in the New Orleans area are still closed. Bush acknowledged on Thursday that government red tape was one factor holding up US$33 billion of the US$110 billion Katrina aid package approved by the US Congress.
Bush was to stop later in Americus, Georgia, where two people were killed when the Sumter Regional Hospital was hit by the storm.
The height of the tornado season in the United States does not begin until May, but winter tornadoes are common in years which experience the El Nino phenomenon -- an unusual warming of Pacific waters that can bring torrential rain to some parts of the globe and extreme drought to others.
- REUTERS
