Obama Heading To Alabama To Assess Storm Damage

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama will travel to Alabama on Friday to assess the damage caused by storms ravaging the Southeast this week, the White House announced Thursday.

Obama will meet with Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R), local officials and families affected by the severe storms and tornadoes ripping across the state. More than 200 people have died from storms hammering regions between Mississippi to Georgia; most deaths have been in Alabama.

"While we may not know the extent of the damage for days, we will continue to monitor these severe storms across the country and stand ready to continue to help the people of Alabama and all citizens affected by these storms," Obama said in statement.

Earlier Thursday, the president spoke to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate to discuss disaster relief efforts. Obama signed an Alabama emergency on Wednesday night, which authorizes FEMA to provide any resources deemed necessary to aid the state.

During their conversation, Obama asked Fugate to visit Alabama Thursday to personally work with state and local officials. Napolitano is already in Missouri meeting with local officials and touring the Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, which sustained damage from tornadoes last week.

Click here to see a picture of Obama on the call.

The president postponed a White House event honoring the BCS National Champions, the Auburn Tigers, to make the trip.

 

 

Comments

[Ben Woodruff]

03:53 PM on 04/29/2011

Nothing like HuffPo to demonstrate how crappy some people can be.

[bobncar]

10:33 AM on 04/29/2011

I have friends in Huntsville that I haven't been able to contact. I wish there was more information about specifics. I don't even know how big Huntsville is. Does anybody here, know just how wide the damage path was in Huntsville?

[Paros]

10:51 AM on 04/29/2011

Here are some photos of damage in Huntsville.
http://photos.al.com/4462/gallery/storm_damage_in_nw_huntsville/index.html

[Paros]

10:55 AM on 04/29/2011

There were 7 deaths in Madison County which is where Huntsville is.
Power outage in the state affects over 1 million sites.
Phone outage is widespread as well - phone lines and cell towers are down all over the state.

[bobncar]

12:00 PM on 04/29/2011

Thank you.....that's the reason why we can't get thru by phone.

[alans0222]

09:33 AM on 04/29/2011

Do you people on here even care that over 300 people died in these storms and many hundreds more injured with thousands now without homes? More important to make ridiculous remarks about race and the tea party.

[hmmmmm]

08:35 AM on 04/29/2011

Obama,
please don't give them one red cent of that socialist, secret muslim federal aid. they have made it perfectly clear they can pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and don't want or need any of that Washington support.

[lqw]

08:55 AM on 04/29/2011

How kind of you. BTW don't the people in the South pay taxes ?

[madatnewsmedia]

11:50 AM on 04/29/2011

So does everyone else, but it hasn't stop the tea party and its minions from trashing everything and everybody! Get real!

[everonward]

11:59 AM on 04/29/2011

Much of the south are what's referred as "receiver states", that is to say they receive more federal dollars than than they send to Washington in the form of taxes; as opposed to many northern and "blue" states, which are mostly "donor states" who get back less federal dollars than they send to Washington.. In other words many of these rugged individualist- "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" leaning states are subsidized by northern, more liberal states.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2004/11/29/8192719/index.htm

[deeblk07]

09:03 AM on 04/29/2011

i agree! except maybe for the black demographic since they can't help but be help captive by the majority down there

[ewb2001]

10:11 PM on 04/28/2011

He could do like Bush & do a "fly-over" like Bush did to us in New Orleans. But Obama is much better than that and not nearly a heartless as the Tea baggers would want government to be. A natural disaster always turn repugs into Democrats instantly! Mississippians did not fly an American Flag for 5 years after the CIvil Rights Act of 1964, that is till Hurricane Camille struck the Mississippi Gulf Coast, then everyone was flying the American Flag along the coast for the photographers!

[MIVOTE]

07:25 PM on 04/28/2011

Hope Alabamians appreciate having the President come...I'm sure they've belonged to the GOP and TeaParty...

Perhaps they will change their mind and see who really cares. and I hope he takes the time to let them know that the GOP wants to cut money from Homeland Security.

[Bob Kellerman]

10:47 PM on 04/28/2011

The White Alabamians? OK, it should only happen. Too many of them would meet him at the airport and offer him "the noose to the city", in lieu of the key.

[RiceStarz]

05:14 PM on 04/28/2011

My Prez doesn't do flyovers or comb overs. He barocks for all Americans:-D

[mistlesuede]

05:38 PM on 04/28/2011

Very good!! I have commented many times that he tries to be the President of all of the American people whether they are backwards, stubborn and living in the way distant past.

[Trogenhorse]

08:22 PM on 04/28/2011

Thanks Rice, needed that smile

[JaxReader]

05:09 PM on 04/28/2011

If Jesus came down and said President Obama is doing a good job, the Right would try to crucify him again.

They are like a broken record. To them, he cannot do anything right. If it wasn't so sad and detrimental to the nation, it wold be funny.

[iridium53]

04:26 PM on 04/28/2011

Alabama's anti-everything but evangelical Tea-Publican Governor campaigned on reducing government.
He campaigned and, so far, has been executing on a strategy to starve government.
He's been real loud about it.

Now the sanctimonious, hypocritical Governor of Alabama wants help from the very government he wants to starve.

Descpicable.

Let the Tea-Publicans of Alabama and the South, that voted to starve the federal government, walk the walk.
No money for them.
Let them live by their principles of American exceptionalism and American personal Ayn Randian independence.

Ayn Rand, the Rands and Wisconsin's Ryan would all have you believe that these people are just not exceptional enough to avoid these problems - and therefore deserve their fate.

[JWebberPhoto]

04:40 PM on 04/28/2011

Okay, but can the rest of the citizens in the South get some help, or is their proximity to TeaBirchers too close for you to allow it?

[RiceStarz]

04:45 PM on 04/28/2011

No worries. They will get help, and we will get the votes in 2012. I bet the GOteaP didn't count on mother nature to help them lose in in 2012:-D

[iridium53]

04:59 PM on 04/28/2011

No money for states that have Tea-Publican Governors, Senators or a majority of Congresspersons.

If Tea-Publicans want to starve the government and exercise personal independence - let 'em live by their words and votes.

[Souris9]

05:17 PM on 04/28/2011

How about the Democrats and liberals of the South?

[JWebberPhoto]

09:02 PM on 04/28/2011

We don't matter, evidently.

[hmmmmm]

08:41 AM on 04/29/2011

Im a red state refugee in GA. If my state turns for federal aid, you can bet I will be shouting about "socialism" and "pulling oneself up by their bootstraps". No nanny state here, right fellow Georgians? of course, this is sarcasm pure and simple, but the point needs to be made: even the most die hard anti federalist looks for help from the feds sometime. the US government is not the enemy.

[Hendrix650]

04:20 PM on 04/28/2011

Whether you like Obama or not, at least he always attempts to be president for All Americans inspite of the way many treat him.

[RiceStarz]

04:46 PM on 04/28/2011

Saw him on fire at the NYC town hall last night. let me just say, the h8ers got nothing on this man. The crowd was amazing as was he. Totally fired up and IN!!!

[JWebberPhoto]

04:56 PM on 04/28/2011

I like the cut of your jib and I had to fan you. Are you coming to the DNC in Charlotte next year?

[mistlesuede]

05:45 PM on 04/28/2011

I am in awe of President Obama for the thankless job he is doing. The treatment he is receiving is appalling. He is like MLK in that he continues to try to be the President of all Americans and never complains while he is being discriminated against.

[Trogenhorse]

08:30 PM on 04/28/2011

I would guess that is the message for all of us. I have let this latest incidence of disrespect drive to the edge, then I remembered. People of all walks of life came out to vote for this president. I met people my path would have never crossed. I am in constant surprise of the open hearts and minds in this country.

Once upon a time in 2008, we proved to the world that American has gotten beyond the things that separate us. We now have to go back and do it again. Excempt this time, we have to guard the gate. Those that want to pull us apart can not be allowed back in this time.

[JWebberPhoto]

04:13 PM on 04/28/2011

Instead of being condescend­ing toward the South, my fellow liberals from other parts of the country should contribute to the Democratic Congressio­nal Campaign Committee; they should travel to competetiv­e Southern districts and volunteer for Democratic candidates­; and they should spend some time familiariz­ing themselves with the social problems of the region and meeting the people trying against tough odds to do something about them.

[SPQR1775]

05:05 PM on 04/28/2011

I tell you what, the GOPT can't see what's in store for them, 2012 Obama will win all 50 states and the 7 territories. Lift every voice and SING til Earth and Heaven ring!

[JWebberPhoto]

04:01 PM on 04/28/2011

“I pulled two dead bodies from a home after it happened,” Gibson said. “I found an elderly lady and a three-year-old baby. After that my body and mind have been in shock and to try and describe what I’m feeling — I can’t."
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20110428/NEWS/110429667?Title=2-40-P-M--UPDATE--Alberta-City-survivors-struggle

[JWebberPhoto]

04:08 PM on 04/28/2011

The three-year-old toddler pulled dead from a ruined house in Alberta City got her comeuppance?

[mistlesuede]

03:40 PM on 04/28/2011

Don't care for people in the South. With that being said, I wouldn't wish anyone to go through what these folks are.
I hope President Obama's presence there can change some minds of the backwards.

[JWebberPhoto]

03:58 PM on 04/28/2011

It's always refreshing to see people admit bigotry openly.

[mistlesuede]

04:03 PM on 04/28/2011

It is always refreshing to see people live in reality, acknowledge it and hope something like this happening can change some minds, however difficult it is.
Thanks for your holier than thou snark.

[RiceStarz]

04:48 PM on 04/28/2011

Yes, true, unlike the GOteaP.

[RiceStarz]

05:08 PM on 04/28/2011

FLTF:-D

[mistlesuede]

05:34 PM on 04/28/2011

Oh boy. You better be careful or you'll have Father Webber denouncing you. He obviously cannot read English.

[Patroclus]

03:38 PM on 04/28/2011

Is this wise of Obama? It will be rubbing salt in the wounds of those racist places, those bastions of the Tea Party and reaction. For them to see an African-American President discussing provision of aid is something that many, if not most, in those states that have never really accepted the outcome of the Civil War or the Civil Rights Acts will find unbearable. Just think, having to request succor from an African-American - the humiliation, the embarrassment, the degradation, the loss of face!!! I cannot stop thinking about Dallas.

[RiceStarz]

04:50 PM on 04/28/2011

You are so fake. If not, you have not a clue, nor heart. Shame on you for pretending to care about something which has naught to do with this disaster. I saw Prez last night, he can handle anything and not only that, his going will ensure some goodwill as he is president of all Americans. Even the h8ters.

[Patroclus]

07:23 PM on 04/28/2011

Too bad you cannot comprehend what you read, much less try a bit of objectivity. Admittedly, they do go together, something of which you are, apparently, totally unaware. Adulation is one thing, although I fail to appreciate it, but it is quite another when it leads to blind hero worship. You may think superman is in the White House, but I have news for you: he isn't. He is human and he is vulnerable...just as were Kennedy and Lincoln. While legally Mr. Obama is president of the nation and thus of all, there are many, especially many in the states hit by the tornadoes who do not think he is legitimate, especially because of his skin color, who despise his very being and who h8te him with their every fiber. The certainly do not see him as THEIR president. So breathe deeply and try, hard as it may be, to deal with reality instead of hero worship which does nothing to protect this man. Obama in the South is going in harm's way.

[Souris9]

05:22 PM on 04/28/2011

Oh, yes, I'm sure the large black population of some of the areas hardest hit will be just furious. *sarcasm*

[Patroclus]

07:15 PM on 04/28/2011

And you seriously think those are the ones to worry about? But of course, the nest of states that house the birthers, those who claim Obama is a Muslim, and the vituperation associated with his every act are just directing friendly criticism and are trying to help him achieve greatness having naught but his best interests at heart.

[ivanczar]

03:36 PM on 04/28/2011

I suppose the Alabama tea bag party will want needed gov't. action now.And thankfully our President will do what's right.

[RiceStarz]

04:51 PM on 04/28/2011

He always does his best.

[mistlesuede]

05:22 PM on 04/28/2011

But it is never good enough for all the h8er's in the country and their numbers are endless!

[Patroclus]

07:26 PM on 04/28/2011

Good Grief! If what health care reform and Wall Street reform are his best, then your praise is very faint indeed. Although significantly better than the alternative, Obama is a pretty weak leader and more of a corporatist than a progressive.

[SPQR1775]

05:08 PM on 04/28/2011

Agreed. Many of these people will FORGET that they want smaller Goverment until they NEED A HANDOUT!

[lqw]

09:04 AM on 04/29/2011

Have you seen anyone on TV asking for a handout ? These people have lost their homes, their family members, and are still searching for those missing. They are not asking for a handout. Have some compassion.

[Paros]

09:44 AM on 04/29/2011

Really? You have an analysis of which victims voted for whom in 2008? Have you looked at the photos of those whose homes and relatives were losted on Wednesday and determined that they don't believe in government for the people? And whould they have a poltical view tht differes from yours, you should wish them such hatred when their very lifes have been turned upside down and destroyed by one of the most vicious storms systems to hit my city and state. Look at the faces of these three Alabamians and tell me that they and their families and their neighbors don't deserve better than you spew. http://photos.al.com/birmingham-news/2011/04/pratt_tornado.html