MOORE, Okla. — President Barack Obama walked among 10-foot-tall piles of tornado debris littered with children’s schoolbooks Sunday as he offered the condolences of a nation to a town that was nearly wiped off the map by a storm.

Standing next to the rubble that was once Plaza Towers Elementary School — and the place where seven children lost their lives when the tornado touched down a week ago — the president declared his confidence that Moore would rebuild and recover, and he pledged the support of the government, and the nation, toward that goal.

“This is a strong community with strong character,” Obama said with a grim face, as he stood with Mary Fallin, the Republican governor of Oklahoma, and local officials. “There’s no doubt they will bounce back. But they need help.”

Obama, a president who is often locked in a struggle with Republicans over their disdain for expansive federal agencies, has repeatedly found himself pledging the full power of the government to confront natural disasters. On Tuesday, he will return to the New Jersey coast to witness the rebuilding after Hurricane Sandy.

In Oklahoma, Obama took a brief walk through the remains of what once was a thriving suburb south of Oklahoma City. American flags, flapping in the stiff winds of the warm spring day, were among the rubble.

But the piles also contained reminders of the lives torn apart by winds that topped 200 miles per hour as the twister cut a roughly 20-mile path of destruction through town.

There were 2012 yearbooks from the Plaza Towers school and a workbook titled “Jamal’s Surprise.” There were several water-logged encyclopedias and a pink baby doll stroller. In another pile was a purple plastic toy camcorder and a pink child’s parka. Every few feet, crumpled cars blocked the way and twisted metal littered yards that once had lawns. The only trees remaining had no bark and no leaves.

Secret Service agents stood in pairs on the roofs of military vehicles. Only the hum of a portable generator and the rush of a stiff wind could be heard.

As he was in other places — Joplin, the Jersey Shore, West Texas, Colorado Springs, Tuscaloosa and the Gulf Coast — Obama was the consoler-in-chief, with the television cameras rolling. He promised Moore residents that his administration would stay with them — as it has, he said, in the other communities — as Oklahomans rebuilt.