Bush visits Iowa, billions in flood aid available

By Tabassum Zakaria

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush got a close-up view of damage from the worst Midwest flooding in 15 years on Thursday as his administration promised funding from a multibillion-dollar disaster relief fund.

The price tag from the slow-rolling calamity mounted as flood waters surged over and through levees along the surging Mississippi River.

The cost of the flooding across the U.S. corn belt will be felt by consumers worldwide in terms of higher food prices, and in business losses yet to be toted up.

"I know a lot of farmers and cattlemen are hurting right now," Bush said at an emergency center in Cedar Rapids, among the cities hit hardest by this week's flooding. "It's a tough time," he said before taking a helicopter tour of flooded areas with Iowa Gov. Chet Culver.

After viewing the Cedar River, which jumped its banks and flooded several square kms of Cedar Rapids, Bush toured a construction company used as a staging area in flooded Iowa City and saw a wall of sandbags stained brown by the river.

During the trip to Cedar Rapids with Bush, Federal Emergency Management administrator David Paulison said the $4 billion currently in FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund should be "more than enough" to provide federal aid.

White House Budget Director Jim Nussle, a former Iowa congressman, said Bush would not announce new aid immediately, but was keeping an eye on the U.S. House of Representatives debate on a war funding bill that included $2.65 billion to replenish the disaster relief fund.

In a sign of the political importance of heartland states, the Republican hoping to succeed Bush in the White House, John McCain, paid a visit to Columbus Junction, downstream on the Iowa River from Iowa City, where Bush stopped before returning to Washington.