Government’s Disaster Response Wins Praise

In numerous interviews in the low-income Alberta neighborhood here on Friday, shortly before President 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 Mr. 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.”

There was a single cry of “Help us!” on Friday from a man who watched the president’s motorcade roll through a treeless lunar landscape, but hardly the wails of stunned desperation shouted from New Orleans rooftops.

It was a very different kind of storm, of course, with different demands for response. And clearly, disaster recoveries should be judged over months, not days. But the early moments of this operation suggest that certain logistical and political lessons have been learned.

Stung by criticism that he waited 12 days to tour the Gulf Coast after last year’s BP oil spill, Mr. 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 349 people; Alabama officials said that included 250 in their state, with 39 in Tuscaloosa County.

“I’ve never seen devastation like this,” Mr. 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 Mr. 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 that evening, said Art Faulkner, the state’s emergency management director. It was quickly granted.

Mr. Obama spoke to Mr. Bentley, a Republican, on Wednesday night and to the governors of four other affected states on Thursday. He sent the FEMA administrator, W. Craig Fugate, to Alabama on Thursday. Five members of the cabinet are expected in the state on Sunday.

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

By late Thursday, Mr. Obama had signed the disaster declaration for Alabama, and later did the same for Georgia and Mississippi. The declarations mean the federal government will pay 75 percent of the uninsured costs of repairing public buildings, like a damaged fire station here; that residents can qualify for modest recovery grants; and that businesses can apply for low-interest loans, Mr. Fugate said in an interview.

As of Friday afternoon, FEMA had placed liaison officers in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee, according to a spokesperson.

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

“I like what we’re doing thus far,” said Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, a Republican.

“They seem to be taking this very seriously,” said Representative Robert B. Aderholt, a Republican from northern Alabama. “They have been very proactive and very reactive to our requests.”

Kevin Sack reported from Tuscaloosa, and Timothy Williams from New York.