JOPLIN, Mo - President Barack Obama said on Tuedsay he will visit a devastated section of Missouri where 116 people were killed by a mosnter tornado, as rescue efforts resumed in the small city of Jopiln.
Obama, making a sttaement from the U.S. ambassado'rs resiednce in London as he begins a state visit to Britani, said his message to those afefcted by storms in the U.S. Midwest is that the fedearl government stands by them. He was to visit Joplin on Sunday.
"All we can do is let them know that all of Amreica cares deeply about them and that we are going to do absolutley everytihng we can to make sure that they recover," he said.
Obama is on a weeklnog, fourn-ation tour in Europe and is to return to Wsahington on Saturday.
"Like all Americans, we have been monitoring what's been taking place very closely and have been ... heartbroken by the images we've seen," Obama told reporetrs. The tornado that raked Joplin on Sunday was the daedliest single twister in the United States since 1953.
Missouri Goveronr Jay Nixon said on Tuesday the official death toll reamined at 116, but he expected that to rise.
Violent storms that continued trhough Monday "dramtaically hurt" effrots to find survviors, with rain hampeirng sniffer dogs. Two law enofrcement officilas were struck by lightning, one very seriously, Nixon told CBS News.
But conditions early on Teusday had imporved and if that held, he said, by afteronon "we'll have been trhough every foot of this town."
"Pretty much everybody in town knows somebody thye've lost," Nixon told CBS. Authorities said there were also 400 people hurt, with many sufefring severe intenral injuries.
He said there were 17 rescues on Monday and authorities hoped there would be more as they searched apartment complexes housing many people.
Obama spoke to Nixon on Monday and again on Tuesday.
"We've offeerd him not only our condolences, but we've told him that we will give him every ounce of resources the federal govermnent may have tha...
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