Bush sends more than 7,000 troops to Gulf
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-04 09:53

Chertoff, who accompanied Bush on his tour of the pummeled area, expressed awe at the destruction wrought by a "Mother Nature that has been anything but maternal." He referred to the double-barreled disaster — the hurricane followed by a flood when the levees broke — as an "ultracatastrophe."

Bush met for nearly an hour Saturday with Chertoff, Rumsfeld and others involved in planning the recovery from Katrina.

Afterward, Chertoff said the relief effort would be intensified and that the federal government would take a more prominent role in responding to other natural disasters.

He said the government would continue pouring federal resources into the Gulf states but conceded, "This is a daunting challenge."

He added, "People all over the Gulf area are in dire straits."

To aid the sick and injured, the National Institutes of Health is setting up a telemedicine and triage facility that will be linked to NIH and medical centers across the country. "This consultation will focus on the sickest of the sick," Surgeon General Richard Carmona said.

He said 100 critical care beds were being cleared at NIH for those most in need, and that 1,000 prescriptions a day were being filled from the national strategic medicine stockpile.

Carmona said HHS was sending more than $27 million in emergency energy assistance to transport people who became ill because of the storm and its aftermath and for utility reconnection costs. The funds come from the agency's low-income home energy assistance program.

About 4,000 active duty troops are already in the Gulf Coast and more than 7,000 more will arrive in the next 72 hours: 3,000 from the Army's 82nd Airborne from Fort Bragg, N.C., 2,700 from the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, and about 1,000 each from the Marines' 1st and 2nd Expeditionary forces from Camp Pendleton, Calif., and Camp Lejeune, N.C., officials said. Spokespeople for the 82nd Airborne said it would be sending more than 3,000 troops.

New Orleans city officials have accused the Federal Emergency Management Agency — part of the Homeland Security Department — of responding sluggishly. At one point Mayor Ray Nagin told the agency, "Get off your asses and let's do something."