Search teams bathed in the harsh glow of floodlights early on Monday picked through rubble of neighborhoods and commercial districts demolished by a tornado that killed at least 30 people in the southwestern Missouri town of Joplin. "We are recovering the dead," Joplin police Sergeant Bob Higginbotham said hours after the powerful twister struck Sunday afternoon, leaving much of the town of 50,000 residents in ruins and plunging the city into darkness once night fell. Higginbotham was busy collecting the names of people reported missing. "(It's) devastating loss of life, horrible, and it goes on for miles," he said. Newton County Coroner Mark Bridges put Joplin's death toll at 30 or more, on par with the loss of life from a twister that struck Tuscaloosa, Alabama, last month. More than 30 died in that storm. "We know we are up into the 30 range," Bridges told Reuters, adding that 11 bodies were recovered from one location alone and that the known casualty count would likely climb. "People are just telling us where they have seen bodies and adding them up in their heads."
Search teams bathed in the harsh glow of floodlights early on Monday picked through rubble of neighborhoods and commercial districts demolished by a tornado that killed at least 30 people in the southwestern Missouri town of Joplin.
"We are recovering the dead," Joplin police Sergeant Bob Higginbotham said hours after the powerful twister struck Sunday afternoon, leaving much of the town of 50,000 residents in ruins and plunging the city into darkness once night fell.
Higginbotham was busy collecting the names of people reported missing. "(It's) devastating loss of life, horrible, and it goes on for miles," he said.
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Newton County Coroner Mark Bridges put Joplin's death toll at 30 or more, on par with the loss of life from a twister that struck Tuscaloosa, Alabama, last month. More than 30 died in that storm.
"We know we are up into the 30 range," Bridges told Reuters, adding that 11 bodies were recovered from one location alone and that the known casualty count would likely climb. "People are just telling us where they have seen bodies and adding them up in their heads."
Keith Stammer, emergency management director for Jasper County, where Joplin is located, said the full extent of the devastation would not become apparent until after dawn.
"Let the sun come up (and) maybe we'll know more," he said. "We have to go through every building, every house. It's going to take a long time."
Bridges said a temporary morgue was set up at the Missouri Southern State University.
Governor Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency and ordered Missouri National Guard troops deployed to help state troopers and other agencies respond to storms he said "have caused extensive damage across Missouri."
Photo shows emergency response vehicles lining a highway waiting to be dispatched early May 23, 2011, after a devastating tornado hit Joplin, Missouri. Credit: Reuters/Mike Stone
Article continues: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/23/us-usa-weather-tornadoes-idUSTRE74M08L20110523
