Tornado kills at least 89 in Missouri

A MASSIVE tornado that tore a 10km path across south-western Missouri killed at least 89 people as it slammed into the city of Joplin, ripping into a hospital, crushing cars like tin 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 and 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 10km long and more than a 1km wide through the centre of town. Much of the city’s south side was levelled, with churches, schools, businesses and homes reduced to ruins by winds of up to 165mph.

Jasper County emergency management director Keith 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 260km 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 nearbyhospitals 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 Governor Jay Nixon said some were still burning early yesterday. Nixon said he feared the death toll would rise but that he also expected survivors to be found in the rubble.

“I don’t think we’re done counting,” Nixon told reporters, 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. Temporary shelters quickly filled to capacity.

At a 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.

Sirens gave residents about a 20-minute warning before the tornado touched down on the city’s west side, Rohr said. Staff at St John’s Regional Medical Centre hustled patients into hallways before the storm struck the nine-story building, blowing out hundreds of windows and leaving the facility useless.

At least four people at the hospital were killed, Dr Jim Roscoe said. He didn’t know whether they were patients or staff. He arrived at the hospital soon after the tornado hit and said some colleagues who also were injured worked all night.

The Joplin twister was one of 68 reported tornadoes across seven Mid-West states over the weekend, according to the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Centre.