Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) -- John McCain said he will change the Republican National Convention program to focus on helping victims of Hurricane Gustav, now on track to hit the same Gulf Coast area devastated by Hurricane Katrina three years ago.

McCain said he will redirect the gathering in St. Paul, Minnesota, which was supposed to be a festive week trumpeting his candidacy, to make it less ``celebratory.'' He will accept his party's presidential nomination at the gathering that begins tomorrow.

``We have to turn a party event into a call for action,'' McCain told reporters after touring the Mississippi State Emergency Operations Center in Jackson, Mississippi. ``Tomorrow night we will act as Americans, not as Republicans.''

President George W. Bush, who was scheduled to speak tomorrow night at the convention, said he will remain in Washington to monitor the storm and the federal response. Vice President Dick Cheney also canceled plans to speak at the convention because of the storm.

Gustav is forecast to strike the Gulf Coast harder than Katrina, which made landfall almost exactly three years ago on Aug. 29, 2005. The storm may prove to be a reminder of the Bush administration's failures in handling the aftermath of Katrina, which flooded 80 percent of New Orleans, killed 1,800 people and caused $80 billion in damage.

``That was really a turning point for the Bush administration,'' said Darrell West, vice president and director of Government Studies at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based policy research organization.

`Not Very Competent'

``After the devastation of Katrina, people concluded that Republicans were not very competent at managing public policy,'' West said.

If the storm, which currently has winds of 120 miles per hour, proves as destructive as weather forecasters predict, it will disrupt a week of news focusing on McCain with flashbacks of the devastation left by Katrina, West said.

McCain said the first night, and possibly the entire convention, will focus on people affected by the storm.

That will include a call for help ``in the form of volunteering, donations, reaching out our hands and our hearts and our wallets to the people who are under such great threat from this great natural disaster,'' McCain said.

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has also pledged to e-mail supporters asking them to donate time and money in response to the storm.

To contact the reporters on this story: Holly Rosenkrantz in Washington at rosenkrantz@bloomberg.net; Lorraine Woellert at lwoellert@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 31, 2008 14:58 EDT