Bush Tours Town Wiped Out By Tornado

Stepping through the rubble, President Bush got his first look Wednesday at what little is left of a Kansas farming town of 1,600 people after last week's killer tornado.

The president said he came to Greensburg to tour the wreckage in the hopes that he could "touch somebody's soul by representing the country."

"A lot of us have seen the pictures of what happened here, and the pictures don't do it justice," said the president, standing in the street in front of a brick one-story home that now has no roof. "There is a lot of destruction. Fortunately, a lot of folks have basements here and will live to see another day. Unfortunately, too many died," he said.

On a day that alternated between rain and sun, Mr. Bush got his first look from a helicopter that hovered over the ruins of the southwest Kansas town that was flattened last Friday night. The twister killed at least 11 people, the most punishing tornado to hit the United States in years.

On a short ride into town after his aerial tour, the president got a rundown of the damage and the recovery from city administrator Steve Hewitt and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

Sebelius said she believes National Guard deployments to Iraq could have caused the guard at home to be stretched too thin, reports CBS News correspondent Hari Sreenivasan.

"If we had had to deploy Guard and equipment in two areas of the state simultaneously, we would've had to make a choice. That's a terrible choice for me or any other governor to make," Sebelius said.

The president then took to the city's streets on foot to comfort a community that's now little more than a snarled mess of mud, wood, glass and wires. Roaring at up to 205 mph and spanning 1.7 miles, the twister destroyed an estimated 95 percent of the town, with almost every building gone, including churches, the city hall and the hospital.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, flood water topped at least 20 levees protecting low-lying communities along the Missouri River and other nearby streams, authorities said.

Stretches of highway have been closed and thousands of people have been evacuated because of flooding caused by the large weekend storm system that devastated Greensburg. Parts of Missouri, Iowa and Kansas received as much as 8 inches of rain in a 24-hour period during the weekend thunderstorms, the weather service said.

"It's a major flood," said National Weather Service meteorologist Suzanne Fortin. "It won't be a record breaker, but it will be in the top three."

Authorities evacuated 300 to 400 residents Wednesday from Levasy, Mo., as the Missouri River rose. At least a dozen homes were partially under water, a Jackson County dispatcher said Wednesday.

Mr. Bush had already ordered emergency aid for the people, business and governments in the Greensburg area.

The White House has sought a much more aggressive and engaged reaction to disasters since Hurricane Katrina.

"The response to this particular case was absolutely phenomenal," declared R. David Paulison, the Federal Emergency Management Agency director, en route to Kansas with Mr. Bush.

The president stopped at a tractor dealership, where the building was gutted and the plows were mangled. It had been a major employer in town. He freely dished out hugs.

The surrounding neighborhood revealed a car stuck tail-first out of the top of a house. Trees were ripped of all limbs, looking like mere stakes in the ground. A spray-painted sign said politely: "Please pardon our mess."

The president ambled down the road to a house with no roof, almost slipping as he picked his way across a chunk of metal on the lawn. He briefly grabbed a chain saw, ripping it into action for the cameras and other media that accompanied him.

"How are you all?" Mr. Bush said as he moved among residents.

Greensburg has been known for its friendly charm, right down to the old-fashioned soda fountain at the drug store. The town's proud claim to fame is the Big Well, considered the largest in the world to be dug by hand. Now the fountain is gone, the well buried in debris.

Despite the tragedy, emergency officials know the death toll could have been much worse. An emergency warning about 20 minutes before the tornado hit helped people scramble to safety.

This is the third time in three months that President Bush has played the role of national healer. He comforted survivors of tornadoes that ripped through Alabama and Georgia in March, and offered words of hope at Virginia Tech after a gunman killed 32 people and himself in April.