Tornado kills at least 89 in Joplin, Missouri

JOPLIN, Mo. — At least 89 people have died in Joplin, Missouri, and the toll is expected to climb as one of the deadliest tornadoes in state history roared through the small Midwestern city on Sunday, local officials said on Monday.




Manila Buletin - Rescue crews from throughout the region worked through the night in the town of about 50,000 people in search of the dead and injured and to aid those left homeless.

Officials said they expected to find more bodies with first light on Monday as they dig through the rubble.

The tornado blew the roof off one hospital with about 180 patients and some 2,000 other buildings were destroyed. "It is a significant tragedy," said Missouri Governor Jay Nixon. "We're working on all cylinders. We've got to get an active and complete search ... to make sure if there is anyone still alive in the rubble that we get them out."

The path of the tornado through Joplin was estimated at six miles (9.5 kilometers) long and about 1/2 mile to 3/4 (1 kilometer) mile wide. "The loss of life is incredible," said Joplin Mayor Mike Woolston. "We're still trying to find people. The outlook is pretty bleak."

A temporary morgue was set up at the Missouri Southern State University, and a local concert hall served as a shelter for people whose homes and businesses had been wiped out. The devastation surpasses that seen last month when a twister struck Tuscaloosa, Alabama, killing more than 30 in that storm.

The governor declared a state of emergency and ordered Missouri National Guard troops deployed to help state troopers and other agencies respond to storms that he said "have caused extensive damage across Missouri." Joplin City Councilwoman Melodee Colbert-Kean, who serves as vice mayor, said the town was in a state of "chaos."

"It is just utter devastation anywhere you look to the south and the east —businesses, apartment complexes, houses, cars, trees, schools, you name it, it is leveled, leveled," she told Reuters by telephone early on Monday. Stammer estimated that about 10 percent of the city, encompassing about 2,000 structures, had borne the brunt of the storm, based on initial aerial surveillance.

President Barack Obama issued a statement expressing his "deepest condolences" to families of the victims. He said he had directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to support response and recovery efforts. A White House official said Obama was briefed multiple times about the tornadoes on the Air Force One flight to Ireland.

Entire neighborhoods destroyed

The storm flattened whole neighborhoods, splintering trees, flipped cars and trucks upside down and into each other.
                                                                                                                                       -Patis