Joplin tornado kills 89

[NUance]

JOPLIN, Mo. • A massive tornado that tore through the southwest Missouri city of Joplin killed at least 89 people, but authorities warned that the death toll could climb Monday as search and rescuers continued their work at sunrise.

 

Much of the city's south side was leveled, with churches, schools, businesses and homes reduced to ruins. Fire chief Mitch Randles estimated that 25 percent to 30 percent of the city was damaged, and said his own home was among the buildings destroyed as the twister swept through this city of about 50,000 people some 160 miles south of Kansas City.

 

"It cut the city in half," Randles said.

 

LINK

 

This is a lot worse than the Alabama tornadoes. Tragic.

[knapplc]

I don't know if it's worse. Lots of folks died in each storm.

[HuskerNMO]

I don't know if it's worse. Lots of folks died in each storm.

 

It's different, worse is relative.

 

I live an hour east and work at a hospital in town. My hospital has taken 90+ patients from the area, the worst part about this is many of the places people would turn to for help are gone.

 

One of the 2 main hospitals in the city, essentially destroyed and evacuated, the other, jammed full.

 

Wal Mart, Home Depot, Grocery Stores, gas stations, restaurants destroyed. 2,000 or so buildings/home destroyed, up to 10,000 damaged.

 

Not only did many lose their houses, many have lost their place of employment.

 

Extremely blessed that the storms died down after leaving Joplin and tracked east\southeast rather than their normal northeast lines, my house would have been right in the path otherwise, as would a metro area of 300K+

[knapplc]

 

 

It's different, worse is relative.

 

 

 

 

Agreed. No matter how you slice it, it's bad.

[huskerscott]

I think its up 116 dead. I believe that ties the single most deadly tornado in a really long time. Seeing the images on TV made me sick to my stomach. I hope nobody ever has to go through something like that. Everything gone in 15 seconds is just completely unimaginable.

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

Have all the Mizzou and Nebraska fans who frequent HB been accounted for? i.e. fro?

[zonaSker]

The death toll will be closer to 300 once they identify all the victims. Pretty close to the Alabama totals.

 

Tomorrow is going to be very bad for Eastern KS/OK.

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

Tomorrow is going to be very bad for Eastern KS/OK.

You're not kidding. I live east of OKC and the weather forecasters this morning said tomorrow will probably be the worse day for storms we've seen all season. They're expecting widespread tornado's with some of them being large damaging tornado's. The dryline is supposed to setup west of OKC.

[zonaSker]

This sounds just like they did the day before the Alabama outbreak

 

AccuWeather.com Meteorologists are forecasting that there will be at least 50 tornado reports on Tuesday, many of them across the eastern half of Oklahoma and eastern Kansas.

 

The greatest threat of tornadic activity on Tuesday lies in the corridor from Oklahoma City, Okla., to Wichita, Kan., to already hard-hit Joplin, Mo.

 

This includes the cities of Dallas, Tex., Topeka, Kan., and Tulsa, Okla.

 

These locations have the potential for long-lived and long track tornadoes, hail to the size of baseballs and flash flooding from thunderstorms that develop.

 

http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/story/50013/another-round-of-southern-plai.asp

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

Yay for us

[huskerscott]

I hope we dont see the same stuff tomorrow. Moderate risk in Nebraska, last I knew.

 

 

I think Fro lives in Omaha.

[Apathy]

Have all the Mizzou and Nebraska fans who frequent HB been accounted for? i.e. fro?

I thought Fro lived in Omaha? If he does live in Mizzou I hope that the Fro family is doing well and safe.

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

I hope we dont see the same stuff tomorrow. Moderate risk in Nebraska, last I knew.

 

 

I think Fro lives in Omaha.

I think you guys are right now that I remember.

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

What I'm having a hard time understanding with all these tornado's we're seeing is the number of deaths associated with them. The Joplin twister alone has taken over 100 lives and that number will most likely climb higher. And Joplin of all places should be fully aware of the dangers with tornado's since they are smack in the middle of tornado alley. Alabama and Mississippi seen scores of people killed. North Carolina also had an alarmingly high number of fatalities. Yet....the May 3-4 1999 tornado outbreak in Oklahoma produced 60 twisters but only 40 deaths and it included a F5 tornado that tore thru Moore Oklahoma a city similar in size to Bellevue Neb, Norman OK and even Joplin; the May 8th tornado, a F4 tornado that took an eerily similar path to the May 3rd tornado resulted in one death. The May 10th outbreak last year resulted in very few deaths as well. Family members are all the time asking us why we want to live in Oklahoma with all the tornado's. If you ask me...I would say Oklahoma is the safest place to be during severe weather.

[HuskerNMO]

What I'm having a hard time understanding with all these tornado's we're seeing is the number of deaths associated with them. The Joplin twister alone has taken over 100 lives and that number will most likely climb higher. And Joplin of all places should be fully aware of the dangers with tornado's since they are smack in the middle of tornado alley. Alabama and Mississippi seen scores of people killed. North Carolina also had an alarmingly high number of fatalities. Yet....the May 3-4 1999 tornado outbreak in Oklahoma produced 60 twisters but only 40 deaths and it included a F5 tornado that tore thru Moore Oklahoma a city similar in size to Bellevue Neb, Norman OK and even Joplin; the May 8th tornado, a F4 tornado that took an eerily similar path to the May 3rd tornado resulted in one death. The May 10th outbreak last year resulted in very few deaths as well. Family members are all the time asking us why we want to live in Oklahoma with all the tornado's. If you ask me...I would say Oklahoma is the safest place to be during severe weather.

 

It was the lack of warning and the amped severity of the storm in a short time. I know at the hospital they had a 20 minute warning, or so they thought, 5 minutes later the tornado hit the hospital. If you look at the devestation to all the businesses and homes, I look at it the opposite as you and am amazed that people survived it.

 

EMS people from the hospital I work at went over and said it's unlike anything they've ever seen, and these are guys that were some of the first to arrive after Katrina hit in New Orleans.