Bush Increases Funding to Help Florida Rebuild : Recovery: President asks nation to pitch in and says he has decided to rebuild Homestead Air Force Base.

President Bush said Tuesday that the federal government will pay the full costs of repairing the damage Hurricane Andrew wreaked on public buildings, roads and other facilities in Florida and asked the nation to open its arms and hearts to the stricken region.

The federal assistance will spare state and local governments untold billions of dollars of reconstruction costs, White House officials said. The President also announced that he has decided to rebuild Homestead Air Force Base, which pumps more than half a billion dollars into the southern Florida economy and was almost totally destroyed by the storm.

Bush disclosed the federal aid during a day in which he toured the ravaged towns of southern Florida, made a quick stop in coastal Louisiana--which did not receive the same federal commitment for repair aid--and returned to Washington to give a five-minute address from the Oval Office.

Making what he said was an “urgent appeal to the generous spirit” of the American people, Bush said: “In the past eight days we’ve seen on our TV screens real tears, real sorrow, real hurt. . . . Yes, Andrew blew a whirlwind of devastation, but he could never extinguish the American spirit.”

Bush’s hastily scheduled trip to Florida--his second since the storm struck early on the morning of Aug. 24--and his nationwide speech reflect the increasing determination of the White House to demonstrate the President’s commitment to help victims of the nation’s most costly natural disaster in modern times.

There were complaints in Florida last week that the federal response had been too slow, criticism that took on added importance because it came from a politically vital state as the November election approaches.

The address to the nation was intended not only to reflect Bush’s own feelings about the catastrophe but to show the President in the role of domestic commander in chief, a father figure to whom people can turn in a time of crises.

But some analysts said that, no matter what Bush does, it is not going to help him much in the Sunshine State. “It’s like telling your girlfriend that you like her the day after you stood her up,” said Atlanta-based pollster Claibourne Darden, who works for both Democrats and Republicans in the South. “He’s a day late and a dollar short.”

Thousands of Americans have already acted on their own, pouring tons of emergency supplies and hundreds of volunteers into the battered areas since Andrew struck more than a week ago.

According to many on the scene, government management of distribution and coordination has become a major problem.

In an unusual appeal from the Oval Office, Bush read off the telephone number for the American Red Cross, 1-800-842-2200, and the address of the civic organization designated to take charge of the rebuilding effort--We Will Rebuild, Box 010790, Miami, Fla. 33131--to direct contributions and other offers of support to central locations.

Although supplies have been flowing into the region, Bush said more are needed, among them rolls of plastic for temporary roofing and diapers and baby food.

As many as a quarter of a million people have been left homeless, Bush said, while some “huddle beneath the busted timbers” of their ruined homes, and “little children are left without even a toy to play with.”

The President saluted the volunteers, “who slept so little over the past eight days,” and said that “fresh volunteers” are needed to staff medical facilities and help with the cleanup.

Earlier in the day, the President, sweat soaking through his light blue, open-neck shirt, announced the federal government’s contribution to the reconstruction effort after touring the devastation around the air base in Homestead, Fla.

As he arrived there, the fetid smell of rotting garbage filled the hot, humid air, and half a dozen planes spilled plumes of insecticide on mosquito-breeding areas in the rain-fed swamps nearby.

Bush visited a mobile kitchen at the Campbell Middle School, where more than 1,000 meals a day have been dished out since Friday to people whose homes were flattened by the terrifying winds. Accompanied by First Lady Barbara Bush and Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, the President shook hands with people eating fried potatoes and barbecued pork, hugged teary-eyed women and kissed young children.

Bush appeared stunned by the scenes of destruction: tractor-trailer trucks rolled onto their sides, brick walls caved in, stripped palm trees and downed or drooping power lines--in short, a panorama of destruction to which few are ever exposed.

The price tag on his offer of federal support is not yet known, White House officials said.

Under Bush’s decision, the state and local governments will be excused from paying any cost of repairing public facilities, beyond a per capita contribution of $10. Thus, if a community has 29,000 residents, it and the state would be responsible for contributing a total of $290,000 and the rest of the repair costs would be met by the federal government. Repair costs for most private properties are not affected by the President’s decision.

Without the waiver, the state and local shares would have been 25%, although Bush earlier cut that back to 10% before dropping the requirement entirely. Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles previously has said that if the requirement were not waived, the repair costs would bankrupt his state.

Under the Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, a President is allowed to authorize, without subsequent congressional approval, an increase in the federal reimbursement to pay for debris removal, emergency work to protect public safety, and the repair of uninsured public facilities and private nonprofit facilities.

The decision to rebuild Homestead Air Force Base reflects not only its role as a base for airplanes used to interdict drug smuggling and to patrol southern approaches to U.S. airspace, but also its importance in an economically suffering community.

The base employs 7,000 people and pumps $530 million a year into the local economy. Its hospital provides medical care for 81,000 military retirees and their families living in three counties. Reconstruction would begin with existing Pentagon funds, but Congress would be asked to approve a supplemental funding bill to continue the work, said Pentagon spokesman Bob Hall.

The base will be rebuilt at a time the military is closing facilities across the country to cut its budget, but Hall said the Air Force and the Defense Department had both recommended retaining the base. An independent bipartisan commission appointed to review base closings, however, last year recommended shutting down the facility.

Times staff writer Melissa Healy contributed to this story.