we re already experienced the worst tornado outbreak in 50 years. meanwhile, we ve air lifted the first family and the gang that travels with them to europe for six days of hobnobbing with various heads of state, eating the finest foods, drinking the finest wines while mother nature tears the hearts out of innocent people s lives. remember katrina? i can t help that voters remember well katrina when they elected america s first african-american president, like i said, just a thought. the question is this. what message is sent to the people of joplin, missouri, by the president s trip to europe? go to cnn.com/caffertyfile and post a comment on my file. is he going to go there on sunday after he returns from europe. i am aware of that, wolf. okay. thank you.
situation room. let s go back to jack. he s got the kacafferty file. jack? the question is what message is sent to the people of missouri by the president? it took obama almost two months to go the gulf coast after the bp oil spill. now he s having a great time in europe visiting his cousins and the queen, but promises he ll be visiting the sites of the tornadoes on sunday. he s so busy. he ll probably need a vacation soon. donna in wisconsin. get a life, jack. i am tired of you continually feeding the fires of negative thoughts on the president. his trip was already scheduled when the tornado hit. changing a president s itinerary is extremely difficult. not like you deciding to take a day off because the weather s nice. be real and stop the bashing. ed harris in pennsylvania, i voted for obama and like him a great deal. as proud of him as i was when he announced the bin laden justice, i am embarrassed with him being in europe right now, especially with prime minister netanyahu
relations. are the tensions of recent days any worse? any better? i m wolf blitzer and you re in the situation room. first, breaking news this hour. a large tornado has been spotted on the ground in oklahoma and storm-ravaged missouri is being hit by severe weather and possible in the coming hours, searchers in joplin have been taking advantage of the break in the bad weather for a few hours now. 17 people have been pulled alive from the rubble as of last night. but the death toll is far greater. up to 118 right now and that makes this the deadliest single tornado on record in the united states since the weather service began keeping records 60 years ago. almost 500 people have been killed by tornadoes in this country so far this year, including one in that storm and a security camera gives another look at the power of the twisters and how much damage they can do literally in an instant. now more on the twister reported on the ground in oklahoma just minutes ago. the danger