{"page":"\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/resources-c03aa079.css\" /\u003e\n\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/lp_boclips_stylesheets-517835be.css\" media=\"all\" /\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-title='Expressing amazement at the destruction all around him, President Barack Obama on Friday stepped through the wreckage left by rampaging tornadoes and pledged help to those who survived but lost their homes in a terrifying flash.' data-url='/boclips/videos/5c54bdf0d8eafeecae137d88' data-video-url='/boclips/videos/5c54bdf0d8eafeecae137d88' id='bo_player_modal'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='boclips-resource-page modal-dialog panel-container'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='react-notifications-root'\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-header'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-type'\u003e\n\u003ci aria-hidden='true' class='fai fa-regular fa-circle-play'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\nVideo\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch1 class='rp-title' id='video-title'\u003e\nExpressing amazement at the destruction all around him, President Barack Obama on Friday stepped through the wreckage left by rampaging tornadoes and pledged help to those who survived but lost their homes in a terrifying flash.\n\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-actions'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='mr-1'\u003e\n\u003ca class=\"btn btn-success\" data-posthog-event=\"Signup: LP Signup Activity\" data-posthog-location=\"body_link_boclips\" data-remote=\"true\" href=\"/subscription/new\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGet Free Access\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"\"\u003e for 10 Days\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-body'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-info'\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-label='Hide resource details' class='rp-hide-info' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u0026times;\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Expand resource details' class='rp-expand-info fai fa-solid fa-up-right-and-down-left-from-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Compress resource details' class='rp-compress-info fai fa-solid fa-down-left-and-up-right-to-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-rating'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='resource-pool'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-label'\u003ePublisher:\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-name'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='text'\u003e\u003ca data-publisher-id=\"30356011\" href=\"/search?publisher_ids%5B%5D=30356011\"\u003eCurated Video\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-description'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='short-description'\u003eHEADLINE: Obama: 'I've never seen devastation like this'CAPTION: Expressing amazement at the destruction all around him, President Barack Obama on Friday stepped through the wreckage left by rampaging tornadoes and pledged help to those...\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='full-description hide'\u003eHEADLINE: Obama: 'I've never seen devastation like this'\u003cbr/\u003eCAPTION: Expressing amazement at the destruction all around him, President Barack Obama on Friday stepped through the wreckage left by rampaging tornadoes and pledged help to those who survived but lost their homes in a terrifying flash. (April 29)\u003cbr/\u003e[Location - Date:] Tuscaloosa, Alabama\u003cbr/\u003e[Source:] Pool (sound and broll)\u003cbr/\u003e[Notes:SOT: President Barack Obama/POTUS]\u003cbr/\u003e\"Michelle and I want to express first of all our deepest condolences, to not just the city of Tuscaloosa but the state of Alabama and all the other states that have been effected by this unbelievable storm. We just took a tour and I've gotta say I've never seen devastation like this.\"\u003cbr/\u003eBroll travel pool\u003cbr/\u003e\"what you're seeing here is the consequence of just a few minutes of this extraordinarily powerful storm sweeping through this community. And as the Governor was mentioning, Tuscaloosa typically gets a tornado during the season but this is something that I don't think anyone has seen before.\"\u003cbr/\u003e\"I want to just make a commitment to the communities here that we are going to do everything that we can to help these communities rebuild. We can't bring those who've been lost back, they are along side God at this point. But we can help maybe a little bit with the families dealing with the grief of having lost a loved one. But that property damage which is obviously extensive, that is something we can do something about.\"\u003cbr/\u003e\"Mr. Mayor he was pointing out that there is a lot of national media down here now and the Mayor expressed the concern that perhaps the media will move on in a day or a week or a month. That folks will forget what has happened here and I want to assure him that the American people all across the country are with him and his community and we are going to make sure that you are not forgotten and that we do everything we can to make sure that we've rebuilt.\"\u003cbr/\u003eTUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) _ Expressing amazement at the destruction all around him, President Barack Obama on Friday stepped through the wreckage left by rampaging tornadoes and pledged help to those who survived but lost their homes in a terrifying flash. Said the president: \"I've never seen devastation like this.\"\u003cbr/\u003e   \"We're going to make sure you're not forgotten,\" Obama said as he and first lady Michelle Obama walked the streets of a reeling neighborhood. He said that although nothing could be done for the many who were killed _ \"they're alongside God at this point\" _ Obama assured support for resilient survivors.\u003cbr/\u003e   The president's comments came as he absorbed the scenes of a community deeply deformed by the twisters, with trees uprooted and houses demolished. One young man told Obama he had witnessed debris lifting up all around him, yet he emerged with only cuts and bruises. \"It's a blessing you are here,\" the president said back.\u003cbr/\u003e   The nightmare storms in the South have killed about 300 people, chiefly in Alabama. Obama has stepped into the role of national consoler in chief before, including after the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords earlier this year, but he has not had to deal with the scope of such community obliteration until now.\u003cbr/\u003e   \"What's amazing is when something like this happens folks forget all their petty differences,\" said the president after spending time talking to the state's governor and Tuscaloosa's mayor. \"When we're confronted by the awesome power of nature and reminded that all we have is each other.\"\u003cbr/\u003e   The president said Tuscaloosa would rebuild in a way that would give him a story of pride he would tell all over the nation. He spoke with sleeves up rolled up under sunny skies, offering warm reassurances but no big display of emotion. \u003cbr/\u003e   Obama was in the midst of a day of contrasts remarkable even for a president, traveling to storm-ravaged Alabama before heading to Cape Canaveral, Fla., to cheer the final launch of space shuttle Endeavour alongside the injured Giffords.\u003cbr/\u003e   Visible from Air Force One as Obama neared a landing in Tuscaloosa: a long swath of tornado damage that looked like a wide, angry scar across the land. And as the president moved by motorcade through communities and business districts, suddenly the devastation was everywhere: flattened buildings, snapped trees, collapsed car washes and heaps of rubble, twisted metal and overturned cars as far as the eye could see.\u003cbr/\u003e   Earlier, as he arrived in Alabama, Obama fell into lengthy conversations with Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and Tuscaloosa mayor Walt Maddox before heading off to inspect the damage and spend time with local families and officials.\u003cbr/\u003e   All told, the day was shaping up as an object lesson in the many roles a president must play, from healer to cheerleader, beginning with a nod to the country's civil rights past and ending with a speech to its future in a class of graduating students. Before departing the White House, he met with participants in the iconic 1968 Memphis sanitation workers' strike. The president was to end his day with evening commencement address at Miami Dade College in south Florida. \u003cbr/\u003e   The president has declared a major disaster in Alabama and ordered federal aid to assist with recovery efforts.\u003cbr/\u003e   In Florida, a pivotal swing state for Obama's re-election hopes, the president was to act as cheerleader-in-chief for NASA's second-to-last space shuttle launch and for Giffords' encouraging if gradual recovery after she was shot in the head in an assassination attempt in Tucson, Ariz., in January. \u003cbr/\u003e   Giffords' husband, Mark Kelly, is commanding the shuttle flight, and the president will have Mrs. Obama and their two daughters with him, the first time an entire presidential family has traveled to view a launch. But Obama's meeting with Giffords was to take place in private; she has not appeared in public since her injury and was not expected to do so Friday. \u003cbr/\u003e   Although the shuttle program was ended by Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, Obama has angered some NASA workers with his own space plans. He canceled Bush's proposed replacement for the shuttle program _ a new mission to the moon _ putting in its place vaguer plans for sending astronauts to land on an asteroid and ultimately Mars.\u003cbr/\u003e   Obama wants private companies to pick up the shuttle's role of delivering payloads to the space station, an approach that is costing thousands of government jobs, including 2,000 contractors to be laid off after the final shuttle flight in June.\u003cbr/\u003e   More than 500 employees lost their jobs earlier this month.\u003cbr/\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='action-container flex justify-between'\u003e\n\u003cbutton aria-expanded='false' aria-label='Read more description' class='rp-full-description' type='button'\u003e\n\u003ci class='fai fa-solid fa-align-left'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cspan id='read_more'\u003eRead More\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/button\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-report'\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv 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