JOPLIN, Mo. — President Barack Obama made an impassioned promise Sunday to the homeless and bereaved in Joplin, Mo., that the federal government will remain in support of the city devastated by a killer tornado only a week ago.
“We’re not going anywhere,” Obama told a crowd of about 2,000 people during a Sunday afternoon memorial service at the Taylor Performing Arts Center on the Missouri Southern State University campus. “I promise you your country will be with you every single step of the way.”
“This is not just your tragedy,” the president said. “This is a national tragedy, and that means there will be a national response.”
Obama’s speech came seven days after an EF5 tornado tore through the heart of Joplin, a city of 50,000 residents 45 miles north of Bella Vista. The southwest Missouri city was pummeled by the twister that destroyed thousands of homes, its largest hospital, churches and the city’s only public high school.
The death toll stood at 139 people Sunday, unchanged from Saturday. The list of those still considered unaccounted for published by the Missouri Department of Pub-lic Safety on Sunday afternoon consisted of 39 names.
The destruction has been described as covering about 1,800 acres, which is about one-third of Joplin. The 6-mile path of the tornado was a half-mile to three-fourths of a mile wide.
Obama landed at 12:30 p.m. Sunday at Joplin Regional Airport, then toured some of the neighborhoods hardest hit before the hour-long memorial service.
Air Force One flew over a swath of brown as far as the eye could see - a landscape of flattened houses and stripped trees - on its approach to Joplin. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and others greeted the president on the tarmac before they set out for their first stop, a walking tour of a destroyed neighborhood.
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 whole, 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 streaming in from other states to help any way they could.
“You’ve demonstrated a simple truth,” Obama said later at the memorial service, “that amid heartbreak and tragedy no one is a stranger.”
Obama also met with Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator W. Craig Fugate and local and state officials on coordination of federal aid and recovery efforts in the city of almost 50,000. “This is going to take years to build back,” the president said during his tour of the devastation, describing the process as a “tough, long slog.”
Speakers at the service talked about the power of God and hope and determination.
Obama’s remarks at theservice paid special attention to the fates of a deceased Pizza Hut manager, a deceased Home Depot employee and a St. Mary’s Catholic Church priest who survived the tornado by taking cover in the bathtub in the church’s rectory.
Obama told how Dean Wells at the Home Depot store on Range Line Road helped others reach safety in a portion of the store that was the only area where people survived, only to perish himself.
Obama spoke about Christopher Lucas, a 26-year-old father who helped customers and employees find safety in the freezer at Pizza Hut. Because the door wouldn’t shut tight, Lucas held on to the door but lost his grip and was killed when he was sucked out by the wind.
“He died saving more than a dozen people in that freezer,” Obama said. “You see, there are heroes all around us - all the time.”
The president also mentioned the Rev. Justin Monaghan, the Catholic priest who found cover and lived. He was trapped in a bathtub for about an hour after the tornado struck about 5:41 p.m. Monaghan was rescued by David and Myra Straub, who heard him calling for help.
“Father Monaghan, I’m so glad you got in that tub,” Obama told the priest, who attended the memorial.
The president was in Ireland, England, France and Poland last week, and people there were familiar with the tornado.
“I had world leaders coming up to me and saying, ‘Let the people of Joplin know we’re with them,’” Obama said.
“You’ve shown the worldwhat it means to love thy neighbor. I just walked through some of the neighborhoods. You look out at the landscape, and there have to be moments where you just say, ‘Where to begin? How to start?’”
Welder Richard Brewer - who was driving through Joplin when the tornado hit and sat in a wheelchair Sunday after reconstructive surgery on his left leg - said he was most encouraged to hear Obama say the world was familiar with Joplin’s tornado.
“Just getting to see the president and for him to make sure we are doing well - that is big,” Brewer said.
Obama’s message drew high praise from former Joplin resident June Hall, a Juneau, Alaska, resident who has three sisters living in Joplin. She arrived in the southwest Missouri city Saturday and expects to spend at least three weeks helping her sisters and others.
“Obama is a special person,” she said after the memorial. “He’s got intelligence and compassion. He’s sensitive to the human condition of the average person.”
There was cheering, tears, standing ovations and even a brief group chuckle when Gov. Nixon talked about thestate’s slogan as the “Show Me State.”
“For us, the living, there is work to do,” Nixon said. “God says show me. Show me. The people of Missouri were born for this mission.
“By God’s grace, we will restore this community,” he said.
Nixon told those at the memorial service of Joplin’s “spirit of resilience,” but he was careful to say thanks to volunteers who’ve traveled far to help the city. Thousands of volunteers are combing the city with search-and-rescue dogs, serving meals, directing traffic and picking up debris. Nixon mentioned “men sleeping on cots all night” after getting to the city from Tuscaloosa, Ala., a city hit by an EF4 tornado April 27.
“They just had to come to Joplin,” Nixon said. “Good Samaritans on a mission from God.”
The Rev. Aaron Brown of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, which received heavy damage from the tornado, told those at the memorial service that “there was a lot of running and digging and hoping and praying” when he arrived at the church. Tables where children had worked on arts and crafts projects at Sunday school that morning were turned into beds for wounded people, Brown said.
“To those families who died, God said to you death does not get the last word,” Brown said at the memorial service. “Death does not get the last word. Life wins. Life wins.”
Later, Brown tried to answer the question so many have asked him: Why Joplin?
“God never promised the storms of life would be easy,” Brown said. “He promised to be with us. God didn’t do this to punish Joplin.”
Joplin resident John Buck, who’s retired but still referees high school basketball games, came to hear Obama speak. Buck’s own home survived the storm, but he’s staying at an emergency shelter on the university campus to be with his mother-in-law. She lost her home. His vehicle was destroyed.
“Every speaker was tremendous,” Buck said. “It’s like they are actually going to help me get straightened back up. What they said was really from the heart.
“That’s what we are: show me. The governor worked that in real good.” Information for this article was contributed by The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 05/30/2011