With his European tour behind him, President Obama traveled to Joplin Mo. on Sunday, to offer some healing words to a city ravaged by the worst tornado in decades.
As he did during trips after the tornadoes in Alabama and the flooding along the Mississippi River, the president tried to reassure that survivors that they would not be forgotten.
“The cameras may leave, but we will be with you every step of the way until this community is back on its feet. We are not going anywhere,” the president told a memorial service on the campus of Missouri Southern State University. “That is not just my promise. It is America’s promise.”
In an emotive speech peppered by biblical homilies and pledges of national solidarity, Mr. Obama praised the residents of Joplin for coming together in the face of tragedy. He recounted stories of heroism, including that of a 26-year-old manager of a Pizza Hut restaurant and father of two who died while sheltering a dozen people in a pizza freezer, trying to wedge the door shut, before he was swept away.
“The world saw how Joplin has responded,” Mr. Obama said. “You have shown the world what it means to love thy neighbor.”
Earlier, the president visited with survivors and family of the storm that killed more than 130 people and injured more than 900. At least 40 people remain unaccounted for, as authorities continue to sift through the rubble and accounting for the dead.
Air Force One arrived Sunday around midday, flying over a stretch of landscape flattened by the tornado. The president was greeted by Governor Jay Nixon on the tarmac before they set off on a walk around a devastated neighborhood.
He also was to meet with Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator W. Craig Fugate and local and state officials to coordinate federal assistance and recovery efforts in the city of almost 50,000.
Governor Nixon said the tornado had caused unprecedented devastation even as it had united the people of Joplin like never before. “That storm has brought forward a spirit of resilience the likes of which we’ve never seen,” he said. “What our nation has witnessed this week is the spirit of Joplin, Mo.”
Mr. Obama’s motorcade drove through some of the most devastated neighborhoods, where the houses had no roofs, The Associated Press reported. There, he saw signs of the havoc the tornado had left behind: a recliner sitting amid rubble, a washer-dryer standing next to a decimated house. American flags were planted everywhere.
“Sorry for your loss,” Mr. Obama told an anguished woman, hugging her twice as they talked, the A.P. reported. 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.
The president also had words of thanks for the volunteers helping to rebuild the city, including dozens who had streamed in from other states. “It is an example of what the American spirit is all about,” he said.
“We’re going to be here long after the cameras are gone,” Mr. Obama said. “We’re not going to stop until Joplin jumps back on its feet.”
With his re-election campaign fast approaching, Mr. Obama’s ability to connect with voters has been tested in recent months, from the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona in January, to the tornadoes in Alabama and Mississippi, to the more recent floods that devastated parts of Tennessee.
Mr. Obama lost Missouri to Republican John McCain in 2008. But many residents said they were grateful for the president’s visit and for the attention he was bringing to Joplin. When Governor Nixon introduced him at the memorial, the crowd exploded in rapturous applause.