Cooler but still well above normal this week

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support


      JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) - Face to face with the legions of homeless and
the bereaved, President Barack Obama on Sunday toured the
apocalyptic landscape left by Missouri's killer tornado, consoled
the community and committed the government to helping rebuild
shattered lives.


      "We're not going to stop `til Joplin's back on its feet,"
Obama vowed. A memorial service where Obama spoke punctuated a day
of remembrance one week after the disaster, as authorities pressed
on with the task of identifying the victims and volunteers combed
through wreckage of neighborhoods where nothing was left whole.


      The service erupted in cheers when Obama said, "I promise you
your country will be there with you every single step of the way,"
a pledge he extended to all parts of the nation raked by violent
storms this season.


      The Joplin tornado was the worst to hit the United States in
decades, leaving more than 120 dead and hundreds more injured. At
least 40 people remain unaccounted for.


      Air Force One flew over a massive swath of brown - a land of
flattened houses and stripped trees - on its approach to Joplin. On
the ground, the destruction was even more stark and complete. Obama
confronted painful sights at every turn and said nothing in his
life measured up to what he saw this day.


      Yet he spoke, too, of redemptive moments, the stoicism of the
community and tales of plain luck. He told a story of a man he
talked to who apparently put a pot pie in the oven, heard the storm
was coming, hid in a closet and "came out without a scratch."
Obama celebrated the spirit of volunteers who have flocked to
Joplin to help, the pickup truck owners who ferried people to the
hospital and the citizens who lined up for hours to donate blood to
people they don't know.


      "You've demonstrated a simple truth," he told the service,
"that amid heartbreak and tragedy no one is a stranger. Everybody
is a brother. Everybody is a sister. We can all love one another."


      The crowd of hundreds at the service reflected a community in
the midst of rebuilding: people in shorts and baseball caps, and
plenty of babies who occasionally burst out crying. The president
talked over the screeching until a baby was hurried out by the
mother.


      Obama got a notably warm reception in this conservative part of
Missouri. His remarks were tailored for a religious service, with
quotes from scripture, references to the love that binds people to
each other, and comments on the essential goodness of humanity. The
stories of the storm lead us to "put aside our petty grievances,"
the president said. "There are heroes all around us, all the time.
So, in the wake of this tragedy, let us live up to their example:
to make each day count."


      Known for his cool, even-tempered demeanor, Obama offered his
own brand of comforting: eloquent words, plentiful handshakes, some
hugs, pats on the heads of children, offers of "God bless you."
Not for him the raw emotion Americans saw in his predecessors
George W. Bush or Bill Clinton.


      Before the service, Obama's motorcade pulled into a neighborhood
where downed trees cleaved open houses, roofs were stripped or
blown off, cars were cratered and splintered wood was everywhere.
He saw nothing intact, but rather small domestic sights - a view
into a room with a TV still in place, a recliner sitting amid
rubble, a washer-dryer standing next to a decimated house. American
flags were planted here and there in the mess.


      "Sorry for your loss," Obama told an anguished woman, hugging
her twice as they talked. Another woman told him that her uncle
lives up the road - he survived but his house did not. "Tell your
uncle we're praying for him," the president said.


      To those working at the scene, the president said: "We
appreciate everything you guys are doing. God bless you." One
volunteer told him that people were coming in from other states to
help in any way they could.


      "This is not just your tragedy," Obama said. "This is a
national tragedy, and that means there will be a national
response." He said: "We are going to be here long after the
cameras leave."
      Obama retu

rned to the U.S. on Saturday from a six-day European
tour of Ireland, Britain, France and Poland. After days of focusing
on the U.S. relationship with the rest of the world, Sunday was
about an even more critical connection: his own, with the American
people.


      Consoling his fellow Americans is a task Obama has had to assume
with increasing frequency of late: after the mass shooting in
Arizona in January in which Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was injured;
when tornadoes struck Tuscaloosa, Ala., last month; and, more
recently, when flooding from the Mississippi inundated parts of
Memphis, Tenn.


      Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and local clergy, some of whose churches
were ravaged, spoke at the service. Some people said it will help
them grieve and move forward with rebuilding.


      "You need to talk about it," said Dorothy Iwan, 67, whose
granddaughter was caught in the storm but uninjured. "You need to
process it. You need to know people are behind you."


      AP writer Nomaan Merchant contributed to this report.
      

Gallery

Death toll from Joplin tornado is at least 139

2011 shaping up as the deadliest ever for tornadoes

Disasters

Weather and Climate News

Face to face with the legions of homeless and
the bereaved, President Barack Obama on Sunday toured the
apocalyptic landscape left by Missouri's killer tornado, consoled
the community and committed the government to helping rebuild
shattered lives.

Obama tours twister-ravaged Joplin

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox