New storm hinders search and rescue efforts after US tornado that killed 89

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New storm hinders search and rescue efforts after US tornado that killed 89

By Alan Scher Zagier,Kurt Voigt, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – 41

minutes ago

JOPLIN, Mo. - A massive tornado that tore a 6-mile (10-kilometre) path across

southwestern Missouri killed at least 89 people as it slammed into the city of

Joplin, ripping into a hospital, crushing cars like soda cans and leaving a

forest of splintered tree trunks behind where entire neighbourhoods once stood.

Authorities warned that the death toll could climb as search and rescue workers

continued their efforts. Their task was made more miserable as a new

thunderstorm with strong winds, heavy rain pelted part of the city with hail.

City manager Mark Rohr announced the number of known dead at a pre-dawn news

conference outside the wreckage of a hospital that took a direct hit from

Sunday's storm. Rohr said the twister cut a path nearly 6 miles (10 kilometres)

long and more than a half-mile (a kilometre) wide through the centre of town.

Much of the city's south side was levelled, with churches, schools, businesses

and homes reduced to ruins.

Jasper County emergency management director Stammer said about 2,000

buildings were damaged, while Joplin fire chief Mitch Randles estimated the

damage covered a quarter or more of the city of about 50,000 people some 160

miles (260 kilometres) south of Kansas City. He said his home was among those

destroyed.

An unknown number of people were injured, and officials said patients were

scattered to any nearby hospitals that could take them.

Officers from the city and neighbouring towns and counties manned virtually

every major intersection. Ambulances came and went, sirens blaring. Rescuers

involved in a door-to-door search moved gingerly around downed power lines and

jagged debris. A series of gas leaks caused fires around the city overnight, and

Gov. Jay Nixon said some were still burning early Monday. Nixon said he feared

the death toll would rise but also expected survivors to be found in the rubble.

" I don't think we're done counting, " Nixon told The Associated Press, adding, " I

still believe that because of the size of the debris and the number of people

involved that there are lives to be saved. "

Crews found bodies in vehicles the storm had flipped over, torn apart and left

crushed like empty cans. Triage centres and temporary shelters quickly filled to

capacity. At Memorial Hall, a downtown entertainment venue, emergency workers

treated critically injured patients.

At another makeshift unit at a Lowe's home improvement store, wooden planks

served as beds. Outside, ambulances and fire trucks waited for calls. In the

early hours of the morning, emergency vehicles were scrambling nearly every two

minutes.

After daybreak, survivors picked through the rubble of their homes, salvaging

clothes, furniture, family photos and financial records, the air pungent with

the smell of gas and smoking embers. Some neighbourhoods were completely

flattened and the leaves stripped from trees, giving the landscape an

apocalyptic aura. In others where structures still stood, families found their

belongings jumbled as if someone had picked up their homes and shaken them.

Kelley Fritz, 45, of Joplin, rummaged through the remains of a storage building

with her husband, Jimmy. They quickly realized they would never find the

belongings they stored there. They had lost much of what was in their home after

the tornado ripped away the roof. Their sons, ages 20 and 17, both Eagle Scouts,

went outside after the storm.

" My sons had deceased children in their arms when they came back, " Fritz said.

" My husband and I went out and saw two or three dead bodies on the ground. "

Fritz said she was surprised she survived. " You could just feel the air pull up

and it was so painful. I didn't think we were going to make it, it happened so

fast. "

Sirens gave residents about a 20-minute warning before the tornado touched down

on the city's west side, Rohr said. Staff at St. 's Regional Medical Center

hustled patients into hallways before the storm struck the nine-story building,

blowing out hundreds of windows and leaving the facility useless.

Med Flight manager Rod Pace watched the tornado form to the southwest. He saw

the swirling rain start about a mile off, and the flags outside suddenly stopped

blowing to the northeast, only to be pulled back to the west.

Then the glass doors he was holding onto — ones with a 100-pound (45-kilogram)

magnet to keep them locked — were pulled open. Pace held onto the handles as he

was sucked outside briefly and then pushed back in like a rag doll. He fled to

the hospital's interior for cover, and then heard a roar. Pace and a co-worker

pushed on another door to make sure it stayed shut, but it kept swaying back and

forth.

" I've heard people talk about being in tornadoes and saying it felt like the

building was breathing, " Pace said. " It was just like that. "

The hospital was among the worst-hit locations. Early Monday, floodlights from a

temporary triage facility lit what remained of the building that once held as

many 367 patients. Police officers could be seen combing the surrounding area

for bodies.

In the parking lot, a helicopter lay crushed on its side, its rotors torn apart

and windows smashed. Nearby, a pile of cars lay crumpled into a single mass of

twisted metal. Winds from the storm carried debris up to 60 miles away, with

medical records, X-rays, insulation and other items falling to the ground in

Greene County, said Larry Woods, assistant director of the Springfield-Greene

County Office of Emergency Management.

The Joplin twister was one of 68 reported tornadoes across seven Midwest states

over the weekend, according to the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction

Center. One person was killed in Minneapolis. But the devastation in Missouri

was the worst, eerily reminiscent of the tornadoes that killed more than 300

people across the South last month.

Travel through and around Joplin was difficult, with Interstate 44 shut down and

streets clogged with emergency vehicles, debris and fallen trees.

Emergency management officials rushed heavy equipment to Joplin to clear the way

for search and recovery operations. Nixon declared a state of emergency, and

President Barack Obama said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was working

with state and local agencies.

Greg Carbin, a meteorologist for the Storm Prediction Center in Norman,

Oklahoma, estimated that the tornado that hit Joplin had winds of 135 to 165 mph

(217 to 266 kph).

More severe storms are coming, Carbin said, with Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and

Oklahoma expected see tornadoes Monday and Tuesday and the bad weather spreading

to the East Coast by Friday.

In Minneapolis, where a tornado killed one person and injured 29 on Sunday,

authorities imposed an overnight curfew in a 4-square-mile (10-square-kilometre)

area, including some of the city's poorest neighbourhoods, to prevent looting

and keep streets clear for emergency crews. Mayor R.T. Rybak said one liquor

store was looted right after the tornado hit late Sunday and a few burglaries

took place overnight.

___

Associated Press writers Jim Salter in Joplin; Hollingsworth, Dana

Fields, and Bill Draper in Kansas City, Missouri; Todd Richmond in

La Crosse, Wisconsin; Tara Bannow in Minneapolis; and Kristi Eaton in Oklahoma

City, contributed to this report.