Obama to Visit Joplin

This will be the third time in a month that the president has gone to a U.S. city ravaged by disaster.

U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit tornado-torn Joplin, Mo., today, one month after he travelled to Tuscaloosa, Ala., a city destroyed by a tornado with similar force that killed 41 people. Last week a twister with winds of 200 mph (320 kmh) obliterated the city in southwestern Missouri and killed more people than any other tornado in U.S. record-keeping history. As of Sunday morning, the death toll sat at 142, with many people still unaccounted for. At 5:41 p.m. today, exactly one week after the tornado ripped through their city, its citizens will observe a moment of silence for the victims. Obama is scheduled to attend and give a brief speech at a special memorial service at Missouri Southern State University in honour of those killed and affected by the tornado.