Remarks by President Biden After Briefing on Tornado Response and Recovery Efforts

South Delta Elementary School
Rolling Fork, Mississippi

11:51 A.M. CDT

Q    Do you have a reaction to what you’ve seen so far?

THE PRESIDENT:  It’s devastating.  (Inaudible) — I mean it: We’re not leaving.  The federal government is going to stay as long as it takes.  I’ve given every extension, if it’s possible; 100 percent debris removal. 

So it’s going to get done.  But the most important thing is we got to let people know there’s reason for them to have hope, because this is — especially the people who lost somebody.

We’ve been at a bunch of these together.  This is — this is — this is tough stu- — tough stuff.

And the thing that really is — always amazes me, in all the tornadoes I’ve been to of late, is that you have one house standing and one house, from here to the wall, totally destroyed.  It’s but for the grace of God. 

But at any rate, I’ll be — I’ll be out to talk more about this in a minute.

11:52 A.M. CDT