Politics

WASHINGTON (CBS News) ― President Bush says people displaced by Hurricane Ike need to listen to local officials before returning home.

He also asked Americans to donate to the recovery effort, warning against "disaster fatigue" in the nation.

Mr. Bush spoke to reporters Tuesday from Houston, his first stop on a daylong trip through Texas' most storm-battered areas. He landed at Ellington Field to sunny skies, and was briefed on Ike and its aftermath inside a U.S. Coast Guard hangar before taking a helicopter tour of the damage.

Mr. Bush next visits Galveston, where Ike made landfall on Saturday as Category 2 storm.

FEMA director David Paulison says the rescue phase is winding down. Officials are now focusing on providing blankets, tarps, water and ice to victims.

The trip takes the place of a fundraising swing he had planned for the day through Topeka, Kansas, and Fort Worth, Texas; those duties are being performed instead by first lady Laura Bush.

While in Texas, Mr. Bush planned to survey damage, talk to people affected by the storm and assess the government's response so far.

The main needs for people in the storm zone are food, water and ice. More than 2 million in Texas alone lack power and could face weeks before the lights come back on.

"People are working hard," the president said Monday after a briefing from top administration officials about the storm and its aftermath. "There's crews coming in from around the country to help."

Ike battered the Texas and Louisiana coasts on Saturday, coming ashore at Galveston as a strong Category 2 with 110 mph winds, before striking Houston and slogging across the U.S. midsection. The eye missed the center of Houston, but destroyed much in places like the resort barrier island of Bolivar Peninsula, just east of Galveston. The death toll reached 40 and many thousands are facing weeks in shelters.

There is one glimmer of good news for U.S. regions prone to severe storms: the peak time for Atlantic hurricanes is now past, noted CBS Early Show weather anchor Dave Price.

Mr. Bush said Monday that disruptions to energy supplies are one of his prime concerns, because the hurricane's toll on refineries and pipelines is creating "an upward pressure on price" on already expensive costs at the gasoline pump.

"There's going to be a pinch," he said. "I wish it wasn't the case, but it is."

Mr. Bush noted the damage to infrastructure was extensive, but still not as bad as some had predicted.

Ike missed the largest concentrations of oil and gas refineries. But at least 14 Texas refineries closed before the storm made landfall, removing more than 20 percent of the nation's petroleum refining capacity. Ike also destroyed at least a dozen production platforms and drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico - though only a tiny fraction of those there - and production is still shut down in the critical region.

Two major pipelines are up and running again, and power has been restored to a number of massive refineries. But it may be several weeks before the nation's refining capacity is restored.

Earlier this month, Mr. Bush scrapped an opening-night speech at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, to fly instead to emergency command centers in Texas just as Hurricane Gustav hit. He returned to the region later that week to visit Louisiana.

In Ike's aftermath, the first priority is still search and rescue, reported CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann.

In Galveston, teams are going house to house, building to building in battered neighborhoods.

The victims, some stranded, were so relieved when help arrived. Elderly and disabled residents, surviving for three days without power or water, finally, they were leaving for San Antonio.

But Bee DeVaney was losing it, Strassmann reported. On the second floor, her husband Brian, in his wheelchair, was stuck.

"I'm scared," DeVaney said. "That's why I'm shaking. I've been crying all night. Just panicked about what I can do to help. I feel helpless."

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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