TUSCALOOSA – President Barack Obama yesterday promised federal aid to the tornado-ravaged US south after he got a close-up look at the “heartbreaking” impact of severe weather that killed at least 310 people.
“We are going to do everything we can to help these communities rebuild,” Mr Obama told reporters after touring scores of destroyed homes and talking with survivors in Tuscaloosa, a university city in Alabama that was wrecked by the tornadoes.
Alabama was the hardest hit of seven southern states that were blasted this week by a swarm of tornadoes and violent storms that flattened whole neighbourhoods. It was the deadliest US natural catastrophe since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
“I have never seen devastation like this. It is heartbreaking,” said Mr Obama, accompanied by his wife, Michelle, and Alabama governor Robert Bentley. “This is something I don’t think anyone has seen before.”
In Alabama alone, 210 people lost their lives and 1,700 were injured, Mr Bentley said.
“We can’t bring those who’ve been lost back. They’re alongside God at this point . . . but the property damage, which is obviously extensive, that’s something we can do something about,” Mr Obama said.
The president was keen to show federal relief was on its way and that he was not taking the disaster lightly. His predecessor president, George W Bush, was fiercely criticised for what was seen as a slow response to Hurricane Katrina.
Flying into Tuscaloosa aboard Air Force One, Mr Obama saw a wide brown scar of devastation several kilometres long and hundreds of metres wide.
Mr Obama and his family flew on to Cape Canaveral in Florida, where they had been due to witness the final launch of the space shuttle Endeavour, but the launch was postponed due to a technical problem.
Tuscaloosa resident Jack Fagan (23) was glad the president saw the damage. “Perhaps federal funds will help us, but I’m sure it will take longer than they say because it always does.” Recovery could cost billions of dollars and even with federal disaster aid it could complicate efforts by affected states to bounce back from recession. It will place an added burden on municipalities grappling with fragile finances.
Tornadoes are a regular feature of life in the US south and midwest, but they are rarely so devastating. Deaths were also reported in Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Georgia, Virginia and Louisiana.
The second-biggest US nuclear power plant, the Browns Ferry facility in Alabama, may be down for weeks after its power was knocked out and the plant automatically shut, avoiding a nuclear disaster, officials said.
In Tuscaloosa, the twisters, including one 1.6km wide (one mile), cut a path of destruction, reducing houses to rubble, flipping cars and knocking out power and other utilities.
“We are bringing in the cadaver dogs today,” said Heather McCollum, assistant to the mayor of Tuscaloosa. She put the death toll in the city at 42 but said it could rise.
One of the more than 150 tornadoes that rampaged across the south this week was a rare EF-5 tornado, with winds reaching 328 km per hour. – (Reuters)