May 18, 2013
ELWOOD, Ill. (AP) -
Torrential rain, lightning, thunder and strong winds forced President Barack Obama to delay a Memorial Day speech at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Illinois.
Obama took the stage at midday under the cover of a large umbrella to tell thousands of people who came to hear him speak that "a little rain never hurt anybody but we don't want anybody struck by lightning."
He asked people to return to their cars for safety.
Obama waited out the storm in the cemetery's administration building. He later boarded a pair of buses to greet military families that came for the ceremony.
Obama spoke at the Lincoln cemetery in 2005 when he was a U.S. senator. Lincoln created the system of national cemeteries during the Civil War.
