![]() A police officer from Riverside, Mo., who was helping with the rescues, was burned from a lightning strike and hospitalized. Heavy rain fell from dark skies all day Monday, finally letting up only as night fell, and lightning was so frequent that it slowed the rescue and recovery effort, Randles said. The Storm Prediction Center issued a "high risk" warning ahead of the deadly outbreak in the South in April. It raised the warning for severe weather in central Oklahoma, southern Kansas and north Texas to "high risk" indicating that tornadoes will hit in those areas. "This is a very serious situation brewing," center director Russell Schneider said.Įarly Tuesday, the center said there was a moderate risk of severe weather in central and southeast Kansas and southwestern Missouri, which could include Joplin. The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said a repeat could be setting up, with a possible large tornado outbreak in the Midwest on Tuesday and bad weather potentially reaching the East Coast by Friday. The April tornadoes that devastated the South unspooled over a three-day period starting in the Plains. The smell of ammonia and propane filled the air in some damaged areas. House after house was reduced to slabs, cars were crushed like soda cans and shaken residents roamed streets in search of missing family members. In Joplin, much of the town's landscape was changed beyond recognition. ![]() In April, a pack of twisters roared across six Southern states, killing more than 300 people, more than two-thirds of them in Alabama. It was the second major tornado disaster in less than a month. "We're here for the long haul, not just for the response," Fugate said. "We're going to stay there until every home is repaired, until every neighborhood is rebuilt, until every business is back on its feet."Ĭraig Fugate, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told NBC's "Today" show Tuesday that Obama has declared a disaster in the area, which means residents are eligible for his agency's assistance. "The American people are by your side," Obama said. He vowed to make all federal resources available for efforts to recover and rebuild. Speaking from London, 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. It leveled hundreds of businesses, including massive ones such as Home Depot and Wal-Mart. The tornado destroyed possibly "thousands" of homes, Fire Chief Mitch Randles told AP. The hospital confirmed that five of the dead were patients - all of them in critical condition before the tornado hit. The killer tornado ripped through the heart of Joplin, a blue-collar southwest Missouri town of 50,000 people, Sunday night, slamming straight into St. Searchlights were brought in for work to continue overnight.Įarly Tuesday, Assistant City Manager Sam Anselm said no new victims or survivors had been found overnight. "They still think there are folks that could be alive," Nixon told The Associated Press. Jay Nixon vowed that crews would keep searching until everyone is accounted for. ![]() But there were glimmers of hope: Rescuers pulled 17 people from the rubble, and Gov. The death toll in Joplin reached 116 on Monday and was expected to climb. ![]() Even more ominous: More storms, possibly strong ones, were on the horizon. Rescue crews worked through the rain-soaked chill of night, ignoring lightning and strong winds to dig through splintered homes, crumpled businesses and crushed cars in this Missouri town walloped by the deadliest single tornado in nearly six decades. Rescue crews dug through piles of splintered houses and crushed cars Monday in a search for victims of a half-mile-wide tornado that blasted much of this Missouri town off the map and slammed straight into its hospital.Īt least 116 people died, making it the nation's deadliest single tornado in nearly 60 years and the second major tornado disaster in a month. ![]()
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