Bush surveys Hurricane Ike damage

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President George W Bush is visiting Galveston and Houston in Texas to see the damage caused by Hurricane Ike.

He is being briefed by local officials in the two cities and taking a helicopter tour of the affected area.

Ike, a Category Two storm, lashed the Texas and Louisiana coast on Saturday, killing at least 27 people and leaving thousands homeless.

Some two million people still lack electricity, as emergency workers struggle to distribute food and water.

Long queues

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has promised to deliver 7.5 million meals, 5.1 million gallons of water and 19.2 million pounds of ice over the coming days.

But there have been reports of long queues at the distribution centres, as those affected by the hurricane wait for supply trucks to arrive.

And, in some of the worst-hit areas, survivors complain that FEMA has been ineffective.

"FEMA ain't been by, nobody," Galveston resident Vivian Matthews told the Reuters news agency.

"They don't give a damn if we live or die."

Oil companies reported that the hurricane had caused minimal damage to coastal refineries.

Production was set to restart at all 14 of the refineries that had been closed because of the storm.

A number of offshore oil platforms have sustained damage, however, and it will be some time before the region's oil and gas industry returns to its pre-storm capacity.