JACKSON, Mississippi (AFP) — White House hopeful John McCain vowed Sunday to transform his party's convention into a call for action in the wake of deadly Hurricane Gustav which is bearing down on the US Gulf Coast.
"We must redirect our efforts from the really celebratory event of the nomination of president and vice president of our party to acting as all Americans," McCain told reporters after touring Mississippi's emergency operations center.
McCain said his party would call on the nation to help their fellow citizens by "reaching out our hands and our hearts and our wallets to the people who are under such great threat from this great natural disaster."
The killer storm is on course to slam into the US Gulf Coast near New Orleans early Monday, almost exactly three years to the day after Hurricane Katrina obliterated much of the city, leaving some 1,800 people dead across the region.
Republicans are still haunted by the disaster wreaked on the Gulf Coast region on August 29, 2005, when tens of thousands were left stranded for days without food or proper sanitation and the Bush administration was angrily criticized for failing to act in time.
Bush said Sunday he will monitor the storm and evacuation operations in Texas Monday and will not be attending the convention in St. Paul, Missouri scheduled for Sept 1-4.
Both McCain and Democratic nominee Barack Obama were carefully laying the groundwork to respond to Gustav's certain political fallout and test of their leadership skills.
McCain vowed to set aside partisan politics in the intense race for the White House and instead focus on unity in the face of great threats.
"I pledge that tomorrow night, and if necessary, throughout our convention if necessary, to act as Americans not Republicans, because America needs us now no matter whether we are Republican or Democrat," McCain said.
The Republican party is required by law to hold a convention in order to place McCain and vice presidential pick Sarah Palin, who also visited Mississippi, on the ballot for the November 4 election.
Obama said Sunday he will mobilize his vast donor list to send money or volunteer to help with recovery efforts.
"We can activate an email list of a couple million people who want to give back," Obama told reporters after attending church in Lima, Ohio.
"I think we can get tons of volunteers to travel down there if it becomes necessary."
Obama said was planning to "stay clear of the area until things have settled down and then we'll probably try to figure out how we can be as helpful as possible."
Asked whether rival John McCain's visit to Mississippi Sunday was appropriate, Obama said concern about the deadly storm is not a partisan issue.
"The thing that I always am concerned about in the middle of a storm is whether we're drawing resources away from folks on the ground because the Secret Service and various security requirements sometimes it pulls police, fire and other departments away from concentrating on the job," Obama said.
"I'm assuming that where he went that wasn't an issue."
Obama said it appears the storm preparations were well coordinated and that "we all learned from the terrible lesson that we saw after Katrina and Rita."
"We just hope that by the time this storm hits land that it has dissipated somewhat. Right now that doesn't appear to be the case."
More than a million people have fled Louisiana and New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, desperate to avoid a replay of the Katrina catastrophe, ordered the city emptied in the face of what he called "the storm of the century."
Hurricane Gustav took aim at the United States early Sunday after leaving at least 81 people dead in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica and causing extensive damage in Cuba.
Forecasters said the storm could hit top category force as it moved toward the US Gulf Coast for a direct hit early Monday.
In any case, "Gustav is forecast to remain a major hurricane through landfall along the northern Gulf coast," the US National Hurricane Center said.
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