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| President Barack Obama speaks to first responders, recovery workers and community members at the Oso Fire Department in Oso, Wash., Tuesday, April 22, 2014, the site of the deadly mudslide that struck the community in March. |
OSO, Wash.
(AP) -- Swooping over a landscape of unspeakable sadness and death,
President Barack Obama took an aerial tour Tuesday of the place where
more than three dozen people perished in a mudslide last month. He
pledged a nation's solidarity with those who are enduring "unimaginable
pain and difficulty" in the aftermath of the destruction.
"We're
going to be strong right alongside you," Obama promised the people
whose lives were upended when a wall of mud and water swept away the
hillside on March 22 and took with it at least 41 lives and dozens of
homes.
Obama first boarded a helicopter to survey the awful scene.
Evidence
of the mudslide's power was everywhere: trees ripped from the ground, a
highway paved with mud and debris, a river's course altered. And in the
midst of the awful tableau, an American flag flying at half-staff.
Even as the president flew overhead, the search for bodies continued below. Two people were still listed as missing.
Back
on the ground, the president gathered at a community chapel in the
small town of Oso, about an hour northeast of Seattle, to mourn with
families of the victims. He met separately with emergency responders
before speaking in a small brick firehouse about all he had seen and
heard on a clear, sunny afternoon.
"The
families that I met with showed incredible strength and grace through
unimaginable pain and difficulty," Obama said. Then he offered them a
promise.
"The whole country's thinking about
you, and we're going to make sure that we're there every step of the way
as we go through the grieving, the mourning, the recovery," he said.
Obama
said few Americans had heard of the tightknit community of Oso before
the tragedy but in the past month "we've all been inspired by the
incredible way that the community has come together."
Firefighter
coats hung on the firehouse walls as Obama spoke, with homemade signs
above them reading: "We (Heart) Oso." "Thank you Oso." "Oso Proud."
Brande
Taylor, whose boyfriend volunteered to work on the mudslide debris
field, was glad the president made the effort to visit this rural
outpost.
"It is a small community. It's
little. It's not huge on the map. But there's still people here who need
help, that need the support," said Taylor, who stood near the
firehouse. "And they need to know the president is here to support and
to help them rebuild their lives."
Kellie Perkins, who lives in Oso, said Obama's visit would help families who have lost so much begin to heal.
"They
don't now have houses any more, they don't have anything they own,
their friends or relatives are dead," she said. "I think they need
this."
At the request of Washington Gov. Jay
Inslee, Obama earlier this month declared that a major disaster had
occurred in the state, making it and affected residents eligible for
various forms of financial aid, including help covering the costs of
temporary housing, home repairs and the loss of uninsured property. The
Homeland Security Department, the Federal Emergency Management Agency
and the Army Corps of Engineers also are helping.
The
president repeatedly has stepped into the role of national consoler in
times of mourning. Just two weeks ago, he met with families and comrades
of those killed in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Texas. Three
soldiers died and 16 others were wounded in the rampage by another
soldier, who killed himself.
Obama also has
mourned with the grieving after carnage in Tucson, Ariz., Aurora, Colo.,
Newtown, Conn., Boston, the Washington Navy Yard - and once before at
Fort Hood.
Tuesday's stop in Washington came
as Obama headed for Tokyo, the first stop on a four-country visit to the
Asia-Pacific region. The president is scheduled to spend the rest of
this week and part of next week conferring with the leaders of Japan,
South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines.
