As over a dozen fierce wildfires continued to rage in Southern California, the U.S. government Tuesday offered more assistance to the country's largest state.
TAKING LESSONS FROM HURRICANE KATRINA
Taking lessons from the much-criticized federal response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Bush administration pledged timely help to the victims.
"We send the help of the federal government," U.S. President George W. Bush said before delivering a speech at the National Defense University Tuesday morning.
"All of us across this nation are concerned for the families who have lost their homes and the many families who have been evacuated from their homes," he said.
Earlier, the president has talked over phone with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and issued federal emergency declarations for seven fire-raged counties in California.
He also dispatched Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) chief R. David Paulison and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to California to give assistance.
The White House announced later in the day that Bush will visit Southern California Thursday to view the wildfires and monitor federal firefighting and recovery efforts.
Deputy White House Press Secretary Scott Stanzel said the president wanted to make sure that the state and local governments were receiving the support they needed from Washington.
Bush had been planning to spend much of Thursday in St. Louis delivering a speech on the budget and attending a Republican fundraising luncheon.
Those duties will be taken over by Vice President Dick Cheney, Stanzel said.
Bush will meet Wednesday with his Cabinet on the wildfires, and will hear from Chertoff and Paulison from California via video teleconference.
At the daily White House press conference, Bush's press secretary Dana Perino described the federal assistance in details, which includes 32 firefighting crews and dozens of fire engines from the Agriculture Department, 1,239 federal firefighters, 25,000 cots and 280,000 bottles of water.
ASSISTANCE FROM PENTAGON
The U.S. military, which was also criticized in its own role in disaster-relief operations after Hurricane Katrina, is actively engaged in fighting the California wildfires.
Paul McHale, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense, told reporters at the Pentagon that 12 Defense Department firefighting teams, with 12 engines, are already working in the fire area and more than 17,000 National Guardsmen are potentially available if needed.
In addition, he said, 550 Marines from Camp Pendleton are preparing to deploy to the fire area.
The Pentagon provided 11 helicopters equipped with water buckets to fight the fires, McHale said.
In an effort to make room for more civilians who have had to evacuate their homes, sailors stationed in Southern California are abandoning their barracks.
Also, the Navy has offered an Aegis cruiser, a guided missile destroyer, and two fast frigates to support evacuation efforts.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon designated March Air Reserve Base as the primary staging area for medical and relief supplies coordinated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, McHale said.
And some 100 California National Guard medical personnel are helping alleviate "critical staffing shortfalls" at the San Diego Veterans Center, whose hospital staff are under voluntary and mandatory evacuation orders.
For his part, Schwarzenegger has already called up 1,500 National Guard troops, including more than 200 taken from border duty to help with supplies and security at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium and DelMar Fairgrounds and Racetrack, where thousands of evacuated residents are taking shelter.
Schwarzenegger also requested and received from the federal government six "modular airborne fire fighting systems" units -- which are C-130s that drop water and fire suppressant on the blazes.
Since Sunday, over a dozen wildfires have burned across 1,554 sq. km, killing two people, destroying more than 1,600 homes and prompting the evacuation of an estimated 1 million people in Southern California.
Source: Xinhua
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