Residents of South praise government's response to tornadoes

It has been the deadliest natural disaster on American soil since Hurricane Katrina. But the government response to the tornadoes that devastated the South last week has, at least in the first few days, drawn little of the searing criticism aimed at federal agencies back in 2005.

In numerous interviews in the low-income Alberta neighborhood in Tuscaloosa on Friday, shortly before President Barack Obama and other officials toured what is now an unimaginable wasteland, residents said they had few complaints about the handling of the aftermath by state, local and federal agencies.

Many expressed mild frustration about limits on their access to damaged homes, the pace of road clearing and power restoration, and traffic jams caused by roadblocks and nonfunctioning signals.

But most agreed that government and charitable agencies were coping as effectively as feasible with immediate demands for shelter, food, water and medical care, along with search-and-rescue operations.

"It ain't like Katrina," said Darius Rutley, 21, whose house in Alberta was obliterated. "We're getting help."

Axavier Wilson, 20, who survived the storm in a closet as the rest of his house blew away, said he had been impressed that both Gov. Robert Bentley and Obama had visited right away.

"I don't think there's much to mumble and grumble about," he said. "Everybody feels secure about getting help."

Stung by criticism that he waited 12 days to tour the Gulf Coast after last year's BP oil spill, Obama took barely 40 hours to land in Tuscaloosa, the hardest-hit area in the eight Southern states struck by tornadoes last week. The death toll stands at 342 people; Alabama officials said that included 250 in their state, with 39 in Tuscaloosa County.

"I've never seen devastation like this," Obama said after Friday's tour. "It is heartbreaking."

"We're going to make sure that you're not forgotten and that we do everything we can to make sure that we rebuild," he added.

Top federal officials, including Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, were in touch with Bentley shortly after the tornadoes landed Wednesday, according to a timeline from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

FEMA officials contacted the White House about the need for a federal emergency declaration even before Alabama had submitted a formal request, said Art Faulkner, the state's emergency management director.

"We can't control when or where a terrible storm may strike," Obama said Thursday afternoon, "but we can control how we respond to it."

In Alabama, as in other affected states, the White House was winning early praise from state, local and congressional leaders of both parties.

David Maxwell, emergency management director in Arkansas, where 14 people died in storms and flooding, said Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat, reminded him it took FEMA three weeks to deny a disaster-relief request after a 2007 tornado. "Now," Maxwell said, "he's singing their praises so far."