Clinton Offers Encouragement, Aid to Alabama’s Tornado Survivors
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Standing amid the rubble and ruin of central Alabama’s deadliest tornadoes, President Clinton offered the victims words of encouragement and $3.2 million in new federal aid.
“We have to give people a way to look forward to tomorrow--a project, work to do, something that can be done to make a difference,” Clinton said Wednesday after touring a flattened neighborhood in McDonald Chapel, a subdivision of Birmingham.
Clinton said the Labor Department would make available emergency funds to create temporary jobs for cleaning up the areas of Jefferson, St. Clair and Tuscaloosa counties hit by tornadoes April 8.
His hands clasped behind his back and head bowed, the president slowly picked his way around heaps of twisted metal and piles of shattered boards that used to be homes before the tornado struck, killing 33 people.
Trying to lighten the mood, Clinton said with a chuckle that the owners of the debris-strewn property he was touring were “throwing an open house for us.”
Clinton later flew back to Washington for a quick stop before heading to Chile for a 34-nation Summit of the Americas.
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