Blunt: Tornado-ravaged Joplin needs more money

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. says the federal government needs to pay a bigger portion of the relief for tornado-stricken Joplin:

Blunt, R-Mo., said he had asked federal officials to reimburse 100 percent of local governments' response costs but that the officials had agreed thus far to the standard 75 percent.


"I think they need to come to a better number than that," he told reporters, noting that the communities in Alabama received 90 percent reimbursement after severe tornadoes there.

Damage estimates from last Sunday's tornado, which claimed 126 lives thus far, have fluctuated but Blunt said he believed replacement costs for buildings and property could reach $3 billion.

Responding to a question, Blunt said he believed that President Barack Obama's scheduled visit Joplin on Sunday after a trip to Europe was soon enough.

"I don't think the president could have been particularly helpful" coming earlier, he said. "I have plenty of things to disagree with the president on; this doesn't happen to be one of them."

Blunt, who has a home about an hour from Joplin, said he'd never seen the level of destruction that he witnessed earlier this week. He said that driving through devastated parts of a city he knows well, he had difficulty knowing where he was.

While discussing the human toll, he noted that victims included three Special Olympics athletes, one of whom died last night.