US President Bush on Monday pledged extensive federal help for victims of Hurricane Katrina to "get your lives back in order."

The government put into effect a massive emergency assistance program that included rushing baby formula, communications equipment, generators, water and ice into hard-hit areas.

Bush also was expected to tap into the nation's emergency petroleum stockpiles to help refineries affected by the storm, administration officials said. Final details were being worked out, they said.

The government's supply — nearly 700 million barrels of oil stored in underground salt caverns along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast — was established to cushion oil markets during energy disruptions.

Cars sit idle on flooded streets in downtown New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina came ashore on Monday, Aug. 29, 2005. [AP]

As the storm surged ashore just east of New Orleans on Monday, Bush was traveling in the West — here and in El Mirage, Ariz. — to pitch a new Medicare prescription drug benefit. The hurricane, however, took top billing at both stops.

By the time Bush spoke in California, his focus had changed from urging people to stay out of harm's way to talking in the past tense of "a storm that hit with a lot of ferocity."

A man walks through the flooded Terme area of New Orleans, lying under several feet of water after Hurricane Katrina hit August 29, 2005. Hurricane Katrina ripped into the U.S. Gulf Coast on Monday, battering the historic jazz city New Orleans, swamping resort towns and lowlands with a crushing surge of seawater and stranding people on rooftops.[Reuters]

"It's a storm now that is moving through and now is the time for governments to help people get their feet on the ground," Bush said. "For those of you who are concerned about whether or not we are prepared to help — don't be. We are."

He added, "We're in place, we've got equipment in place, supplies in place and once we're able to assess the damage we'll be able to move in and help those good folks in the affected areas."

The Federal Emergency Management Agency had medical teams, rescue squads and groups prepared to supply food and water poised in a semicircle around New Orleans.

"I was impressed with the evacuation. Once it was ordered it was very smooth," FEMA Director Michael Brown said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. With the storm moving north, Brown said he expected to see flooding in Tennessee and the Ohio Valley