Obama consoles and vows to back rebuild after twister

His feet barely back on American soil after his six-day tour of Europe, President Barack Obama visited Joplin, Missouri, yesterday to take on the role of consoler-in-chief.

It was one week after the town was ravaged by a tornado that killed at least 142 people.

"This is not just your tragedy. This is a national tragedy, and that means there will be a national response," Obama said as he toured a small section of the ravaged city on foot, shaking hands and hugging survivors waiting outside their obliterated homes, some waving American flags.

"We are going to be here long after the cameras leave. We're not going to stop until Joplin's back on its feet," he vowed.

Even as the President approached the tiny Joplin airfield in a plane smaller than his usual Boeing 747, he got a bird's-eye view of the 10km path of damage inflicted by the twister.

After seeing on the ground some of the damage done to this town of 50,000 by the twister that was rated a rare EF5 with winds of more than 320km/h, Obama spoke with measured emotion at a public memorial service attended by state officials such as Jay Nixon, the Governor of Missouri.

"The question that weighs on us at a time like this is, why? Why my town? Why my son?" he said.

"We can't know when a terrible storm will strike or where. We can't know why we are tested with the loss of loved ones or the loss of a home."

He said that Americans should "keep in our prayers the still missing".

Obama is practised in offering words of commiseration in the wake of national tragedies. He notably gave a widely admired speech after the shooting of US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tuscon, Arizona, in January. Just three weeks ago he was in Tuscaloosa similarly to console victims after a swarm of tornadoes killed 238 across Alabama.

For any President, tragedy can be a moment for evoking national unity and burnishing political standing. That said, the southwest corner of Missouri is not an area that is normally friendly to Democrats. One onlooker was spotted waving a "NOBAMA" sign as the President surveyed the wreckage.

Obama nonetheless received a standing ovation as he took the stage in the cavernous university auditorium.

He told the congregation that world leaders at the G8 meeting in France last week came to him and said: "Let the people of Joplin know we are with them, we are thinking about them, we are with them."

The President evoked the names of some who died while trying to protect others.

He singled out Christopher Lucas, 26, who tried in vain to keep the door closed on the cold storage room in a Pizza Hut shredded by the tornado. "He held it as long as he could, until he was pulled away by the incredible force of the storm," Obama said.

"He died by saving more than a dozen people in that freezer."

Repeating the message that Joplin could count on the country for steadfast help to rebuild, Obama raised loud applause. "We will be with you every step of the way, we will be with you every step of the way ... we are not going anywhere."

The memorial service was held on the campus of Missouri Southern University, the same place that the families of teenagers from the now destroyed Joplin High School had gathered for their graduation ceremony just before the twister struck.

The death toll continues to creep up in Joplin and officials said yesterday that as many as 44 people in the city had still not been accounted for. More than 900 people, most of whom were trying to take shelter in their homes or in shops and petrol stations, were injured.

- INDEPENDENT