Governor says Iraq war hampers US tornado recovery

By Carey Gillam

OVERLAND PARK, Kansas (Reuters) - A shortage of trucks, helicopters and other equipment -- all sent to the war in Iraq -- has hampered recovery in a U.S. town obliterated by a tornado, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius said on Monday.

"There is no doubt at all that this will slow down and hamper the recovery," Sebelius, a Democrat, told Reuters in Kansas where officials said the statewide death toll had risen to 12 on Monday.

"Not having this equipment in place all over the state is a huge handicap," Sebelius said.

The tornado that devastated Greensburg, 110 miles (175 km) west of Wichita, started a weekend of violent weather in Kansas, a state in the heart of the central United States region known as "Tornado Alley."

Ten died in Greensburg, a town of 1,600 people. An 11th died in nearby Pratt County and a 12th in a separate tornado in Ottawa County.

The twisters were accompanied by widespread flooding on Sunday and Monday that required more than 200 water rescues and closed many roads and shuttered several schools in another part of the state.

"We're getting pounded in Kansas. We have the need for National Guard in two different parts of our state now. This is really going to be a problem," Sebelius said.

Sebelius and other Democratic governors earlier this year assailed the Republican Bush administration for the strains they said the war had placed on their states' National Guardsmen, frequently mobilised for state emergencies.