IOWA CITY – Gov. Tom Vilsack says he will ask President George W. Bush in person Wednesday for federal aid to help Iowa City and other eastern Iowa communities recover from last week’s tornados and severe weather.

Vilsack had already scheduled a meeting with Bush to talk about the war in Iraq. Vilsack and three other governors toured Iraq and Afghanistan and visited with troops last weekend.

“I look forward to taking our request for federal assistance directly to President Bush,” Vilsack said in a statement Tuesday. “Although this meeting was intended to be a briefing on the war abroad, I feel it is my responsibility to also advocate for the security of Iowans at home.”

Iowa City was hardest hit by a series of tornados that swept across eastern Iowa on Thursday.

Three tornados were spotted in or near Iowa City, but the most destructive carved a path three-and-a-half miles long through downtown, adjacent neighborhoods and the isolated sections of the University of Iowa campus.

One person was killed when a tornado destroyed a mobile home near Nichols, in Muscatine County. Further east, a tornado damaged as many as 40 homes that hit three subdivisions south of Anamosa.

State and federal officials have not completed calculating the financial toll from the storm, according to Kara Berg, spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Berg said final estimates should be complete Wednesday.

Vilsack said he will send an official letter to Bush asking for a Presidential Disaster Declaration when damages are compiled for Johnson, Jones and Muscatine counties. The declaration would make federal money available for housing assistance and repairs.

Officials in Iowa City and the university estimated preliminary damages at more than $10 million to public and university property. As of Monday, officials estimated the tornadoes destroyed 35 homes or apartment buildings and 15 businesses, caused major damage to 81 homes or apartment buildings and caused minor damage to 179 residential buildings and 17 businesses.