WEATHERUPDATED: Missouri town leveled by tornado, over 100 dead
May 23
2011
Crews busted holes in concrete slabs and sifted through strewn home goods Tuesday as rescuers focused on crumpled big-box stores and apartment complexes in Joplin in a frantic search for survivors, after nearly 120 people were killed by the deadliest single U.S. tornado in about 60 years.
One team poked through the remains of a Home Depot store, while others searched a Walmart and wrecked apartments as the clock ticked down on another round of severe storms. A hunt through the rubble using search-and-rescue dogs was planned, and officials expected to test the city's nine warning sirens while the sun was still shining.
The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., warned of severe weather starting Tuesday afternoon in a band from northern Texas up to southern Illinois and stretching east into western Kentucky, western Tennessee and northwest Mississippi. Meteorologist David Imy said conditions were ripe for tornadoes in central and eastern Kansas, almost all of Oklahoma and northern portions of Texas.
"It looks like primetime for the greatest tornado coverage and intensity will be between 3 to 4 p.m. and 9 to 10 p.m.," Imy said. "That will be when the greatest coverage and most intense storms occur."
Thunderstorms are forecast in Joplin from 6 p.m. to midnight, and there's a possibility of tornadoes, he said.
The massive tornado that ripped through the heart of the blue-collar southwest Missouri city of 50,000 people on Sunday was the deadliest on record in nearly six decades.
Sam Murphey, a spokesman for Gov. Jay Nixon's office, said Tuesday that 117 bodies had been found but he didn't know when or where the latest one was discovered. Fire chief Mitch Randles said he knew of only 116 bodies.
Nixon has said 17 survivors have been found, but Randles said he knew of only seven.
"We're getting sporadic calls of cries for help from rubble piles ... most of those are turning out to be false," Randles said.
Rescuers found one person alive at the Home Depot on Monday, but they also discovered seven bodies under a concrete slab, officials said. Search-and-rescue team leader Doug Westhoff said team members have searched as much of the store's interior as they can and are now focused on what is under collapsed concrete slabs that once helped hold up the store. After the holes are drilled, dogs will be brought in to try to detect any human scent.
Randles said teams were taking advantage of the best weather they'd had in two days to go through every damaged and destroyed building. After seven survivors were pulled from rubble Monday, he and others said they hoped to find more.
"It's really incredible the fact that we're still finding people," Randles said.
Westhoff also expressed hope, but said the outlook at the Home Depot was bleak because of the size of the slabs and magnitude of the collapse.
Until this week, the deadliest single tornado on record with the National Weather Service in the past six decades was a twister that killed 116 people in Flint, Mich., in 1953.
More deaths have resulted from outbreaks of multiple tornadoes. On April 27, a pack of twisters roared across six Southern states, killing 314 people, more than two-thirds of them in Alabama. That was the single deadliest day for tornadoes since the National Weather Service began keeping such records in 1950.
The agency has conducted research that shows deadlier outbreaks before 1950. It says the single deadliest day that it is aware of was March 18, 1925, when tornadoes killed 747 people. The day also saw what weather officials believe was the single deadliest tornado when one twister ripped through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, killing 695 people. The most deaths from the tri-state tornado, which started near Gang, Mo., and ended near Princeton, Ind., were in Murphysboro, Ill., where the tornado hit an elementary school in session.
Sunday's tornado slammed straight into St. John's Regional Medical Center, one of the hardest-hit areas in Joplin. The hospital confirmed that five of the dead were patients — all of them in critical condition before the tornado hit. A hospital visitor also was killed.
The tornado destroyed possibly "thousands" of homes, Randles told The Associated Press. It leveled hundreds of businesses, including massive ones such as the Home Depot and Walmart.
President Barack Obama said he would travel to Missouri on Sunday to meet with people whose lives have been turned upside down by the twister. He vowed to make all federal resources available for efforts to recover and rebuild.
"The American people are by your side," Obama said from London. "We're going to stay there until every home is repaired, until every neighborhood is rebuilt, until every business is back on its feet."
Richard Serino, deputy director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said local officials did "an unbelievable job" with the immediate response and that his agency would be there "for the long haul" to help with the recovery.
FEMA director Craig Fugate flew over the area Tuesday morning with Nixon and other officials. State Sen. Ron Richard was on the flight, checking out damage to his hometown.
"It's like taking a mower through tall grass. That's what it looks like," Richard said. "The devastation is complete. It is down to the ground."
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11:57 AM
Taxpayer says
Hey Bailey, EXCELLENT post in EXPOSING a liberal LOSER! Ha! Ha!
It is typical that a residential crybaby, liberal and miserable cat KILLER will use a FALSE picture to try and show their cause. Ha! Ha! TYPICAL liberal crybabies with NO validity. It is a sad case of being a total loser in life when someone must resort to the usual LIES to justify their "no-life" existence. Such a life course is so despairing that one can almost feel sorry for such inept desperation. Boo, hoo, hoo! Ha! Ha!
Tip that guinness beer! Cheers! Ha! Ha! Oops, 0bama must be on a important "diplomatic tour" in an Irish PUB touting his Irish heritage? Of course he is. Come on crybabies, care to keep making EXCUSES for degenerate leadership? I guess you have NO choice. Ha! Ha!
10:59 PM
eightballcuet1 says
First of all the president is not on vacation. He is meeting with the Queen of England, a meeting that had been planned months ago. Even if he was on vacation, I don't think that even being the most powerful leader of the free world that he could have prevented this tragedy. Bailey and Taxpayer, put your money where were mouths are. Instead of sitting here complaining, dig deep in your pockets, call your locaL Red Cross chapter and ask how you can make a contribution to the recovery efforts in Joplin. I'm sure your generosity will be greatly appreciated.
05:43 PM
Bailey says
@ Taxpay JERK
Im not sure where you stand, your post is confusing, are you bashing Bush, the situation concerning the tornado victums? If however you DO believe that picture of Bush holding the book upside down then your name does fit the person, the JERK part. It was a fake.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/bushbook.asp
the liberals at SNOOP.com admits to it being a fake, Below is the REAL picture.
http://tinypic.com/?ref=2ltprmv
04:28 PM
Bailey says
I said it before.
EVERY TIME THERE IS A NATIONAL CRISES OBAMA IS ON VACATION having a beer somewhere besides the White House !!
Sad, no its pathetic. His wife used 50,000 gallons of fuel to go to spain and that caused over 1100 tons of CO2 and obama said that he wants $7 gas so we can be controlled into saving energy????
I believe the trip to India was close to 2 BILLION DOLLARS !!! I bet Michelle is happy/proud to be an American now..........
Fonda today said he hates Obama because he's a traitor and he's teaching his grandchildren how to shoot a gun to defend themselves against this potential tyrant. The dude from KISS says he's brain dead and has no idea of the real world, the list is growing of those who know that this 'man' is evil, selfish and a liar.
03:18 PM
TaxpayJerK says
I BET you didn't think I could think of a way to BLAME THE LIBERALS for a TORNADO, did you? Besides, PRETENDING to read to KIDS is MORE IMPORTANT than some phoney DIPLOMATIC MISSION.
Ha! Ha!
,drool twitch
,
,
11:39 AM
Taxpayer says
Now what do YOU expect? Liberals love to BLAME this nation for every infliction known so WHY even care? Let's review. You crybaby liberal freaks BLAMED Bush for sitting in an elementary classroom during a reading exercise for seven minutes during the ATTACK of 9/11. But, not a PEEP about your president tipping some guinness at an Irish pub and proclaiming his Irish ancestry while ANOTHER U.S. tragedy has occurred. Hey, AP-0bama, the count in Joplin is now OVER 110 DEAD! The count is 481 people KILLED in 2011 by tornadoes alone and still counting. So, WHERE is the "anointed" one? AWOL having some beer. Almost like a beer summit. Ha! Ha! Perfectly acceptable right liberals? How about YOUR president IGNORING the WV mine disaster when 29 UNION miners were KILLED? Forget all about that? WHERE is that UNION solidarity?? Ha! Ha! How about the VICTIMS of the tornado in NW Ohio? No big deal? I guess we do not need any telethons for them either. This nation is the greatest at giving. I do NOT care about ANY liberal hollywood freaks or politicians. I already know what their agenda is exactly like you crybaby liberals here. I watched all the devistation and reporting on Fox News. It is horrific. I remember when a tornado swept threw Perkins. It was nothing compared to those people in Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, North Carolina, Texas and the people flooded along the Mississippi. I am praying for these people and hope others are doing the same. The people of this nation are willing to help the world when it comes to natural disasters. I am proud of the United States and most of the citizens of this great nation. How about you liberals doing something for the good of the people instead of always worrying about yourselves and delegating BLAME? The best way to donate is to give to the Red Cross. They are just about maxed out from all the disasters going on this year alone. I can see 0bama has left his Irish heritage early because of a volcano, but NO plans to disrupt his partying because of MORE disasters and suffering in the U.S. I am sure your socialist president will BLAME the people of this nation for the NATURAL polution from a volcano and DEMAND more PAYMENTS for carbon credits to PUNISH all of us for being so evil. Four more years! Four more years! Ha! Ha!
07:45 AM
sly _fox says
NO KIDDING!! When Haiti and japan were devestated by earthquakes, it was scrolling along the bottom of the tV screen, "To send aid to..." And every other commercial was a plug for a web site or text # to send $10 or more..... WHERE IS THE AID FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE??!!!
Thousands flooded along the Mississippi River, Close to 1,000,000 folks homeless from the tornados this past 3-4 weeks..... New Orleans STILL devestated, and only God knows how many suffering from the Gulf oil "leak"!! (Gov't. is not forthcoming with those #s).........
Sending what is left of our food and $$$ we DON'T have to OTHER countries....WTH is going ON??!!
Americans need to stand and help AMERICANS!!
05:22 AM
Erie County Resident says
Very well put Bailey, I couldn't agree more.
08:36 PM
Bailey says
Recieved an email asking
"Where are the Hollywood celebrities holding telethons asking for help in restoring Iowa and helping the folks affected by the floods, or those in Georgia, TN, and now the west where 75% of Joplin is GONE ?
I suppose those Holliwood mindset is that Haitians are more important than the good people of the USA.
My daughter living in Georgia has helped tornado victims in Georgia for over a week, but we hear nothing from Hollywood and the President took a detour to it while going for vacation. A SLAP IN THE FACE to all Americans! Instead, he flys overseas to have a beer.