TUSCALOOSA, Ala. It has been the deadliest natural disaster on U.S. soil since Hurricane Katrina. And so far, the government response to the tornadoes that devastated the South last week has drawn little of the searing criticism aimed at federal agencies back in 2005.

In numerous interviews in the low-income Alberta neighborhood in Tuscaloosa on Friday, shortly before President Barack Obama and other officials toured what is now an unimaginable wasteland, residents said they had few complaints about the handling of the aftermath by state, local and federal agencies.

Many expressed mild frustration about limits on their access to damaged homes, the pace of road clearing and power restoration, and traffic jams caused by roadblocks and nonfunctioning signals. But most agreed that government and charitable agencies were coping as effectively as feasible with immediate demands for shelter, food, water and medical care, along with search-and-rescue operations.

"It ain't like Katrina," said Darius Rutley, 21, whose house in Alberta was obliterated. "We're getting help."

Axavier Wilson, 20, who survived the storm in a closet as the rest of his house blew away, said he had been impressed that both Gov. Robert Bentley and Obama had visited rapidly. "I don't think there's much to mumble and grumble about," he said. "Everybody feels secure about getting help."

Stung by criticism that he waited 12 days to tour the Gulf Coast after last year's BP oil spill, Obama took barely 40 hours to land in Tuscaloosa. Top federal officials, including Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, were in touch with Bentley, a Republican, shortly after the tornadoes hit, according to a timeline provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.