Top officials tour storm-ravaged U.S. South
PRATT CITY, Alabama (Reuters) - Federal officials vowed on Sunday to speed up the recovery of a region gouged by tornadoes in the deadliest U.S. natural disaster since Hurricane Katrina.
President Barack Obama's administration is trying to show an effective response to the storms and twisters that killed about 350 people last week in seven southern states, reduced neighborhoods to rubble and caused damage expected to run into billions of dollars.
Obama visited Alabama on Friday and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Craig Fugate, toured damage on Sunday in Pratt City, Alabama. They were later heading for Smithville, Mississippi.
"I don't think words can fairly express the level of devastation here. I am not articulate enough," Napolitano said after seeing how storm winds had torn through a house in Trilby Street and talking with a family who lived there.
Obama's predecessor, former President George W. Bush, was sharply criticized over the federal rescue effort after Hurricane Katrina raked the Gulf Coast and flooded New Orleans in 2005.
But Alabama's Republican Governor Robert Bentley praised the federal response to this disaster and said the state's deep culture of self-reliance and community help had made a huge difference.
"When you see local, state and federal people cooperating like this, it really makes a difference," Bentley said on CBS's "Face the Nation" program on Sunday.
Alabama was the worst-hit state in last week's storms, with 250 killed. An additional 101 people died in Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Georgia, Virginia and Louisiana.
About 1,700 people were injured in Alabama alone and others were missing after tornadoes crushed homes, flipped cars upside down and tore children from their parents' arms.
Top officials on Sunday announced a central number for people to call for help or to ask questions. They said they were also setting up a system to allow people to access information on smart phones because many Internet lines are down. And in a bid to help people get back on their feet, the Department of Agriculture will make homes in rural areas available for rent, said Vilsack.
The U.S. Small Business Administration said it would make loans of up to $200,000 (119,602.92 pounds) available to homeowners and up to $2 million for small businesses. It would also make $80 million available in block grants to states.
"This administration will bring the full support of the federal government and its partners to bear to support the states, families and communities devastated by these deadly tornadoes, for as long as it takes," Fugate said in a statement.
DAY OF PRAYER
Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, flooding New Orleans, killing more than 1,800 people and leaving thousands stranded for days on rooftops, in the open or in chaotic public buildings. Relief workers and the government appeared overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster.
By contrast, evidence of coordinated relief efforts has been abundant in the South in towns such as Phil Campbell, a northwest Alabama town where tornadoes destroyed 40 percent of the houses on Wednesday.
FBI officers, FEMA officials, state troopers, police, sheriffs, fire-fighters, and officials of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service worked with many local volunteers to clear roads and debris on Saturday.
"My friend and her boy died right over there. This is what I can do for her from my heart," said Carlos Carabez, who was sawing a fallen tree into pieces so it could be hauled away.
Bentley declared Sunday a day of prayer in Alabama, a poor and politically conservative state that is part of a region in which evangelical churches play a powerful social role.
Several churches were torn down by the storms, including Bethel Baptist church, an African American church in Pratt City outside Birmingham with a congregation of 5,000. On Sunday, the church held services at a local convention centre.
"This service is our response to tragedy. It shows that we are not victims. We are victors. We are visible victors," pastor T.L. Lewis said in an interview.
The death toll from last week, which is still expected to rise, was the second-highest inflicted by tornadoes in U.S. history. In 1925, 747 people were killed after twisters hit the midwestern states of Missouri, Illinois and Indiana.
Unlocking federal assistance, Obama late on Friday signed major disaster declarations for Mississippi and Georgia, adding to the one already signed for Alabama.
(Additional reporting by Verna Gates in Phil Campbell; writing by Matthew Bigg; editing by Tom Brown and Mohammad Zargham)