US deadliest tornado kills 122 people in Missouri
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The death toll from the tornado that burst through Joplin, Missouri, the United States, rose to 122 on Tuesday, making it the deadliest single U.S. tornado since the country began modern record-keeping over 60 years ago.
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A massive storm system Sunday night dropped a devastating tornado into Joplin, a city of 50,000 people in the southwest corner of Missouri, killing at least 118 people and leaving churches, schools, and homes reduced to ruins.[Photo:Chinanews] |
By Monday night, a total of 17 people have been found alive and rescued from the wreckage and around several hundred people were injured.
About 1,500 people of the town's 50,000 residents are still unaccounted for, the New York Times quoted Joplin Emergency Management Director Keith Stammer as saying.
The newspaper noted the figure could be so high due to communications problems that followed the storm, which knocked down 17 cell phone towers.
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon said that the death toll is expected to climb as searching and rescuing continues, Xinhua reported.
U.S. President Barack Obama announced his plan to visit Joplin in a statement issued from Britain on Sunday after he returned from his current European tour.
He said in the statement that "the devastation is comparable and may end up exceeding some of the devastation that we saw in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, just a few weeks ago."
Xinhua reported that the tornado touched down into the heart of the city near 6 p.m. on Sunday, destroying thousands of buildings. Local fire departments estimated that 25 to 30 percent of the city was damaged by the winds of up to 200 miles per hour.
The tornado even cut a path nearly six miles long and more than a half-mile wide in the downtown area. Besides, a series of gas leaks caused fires around the city overnight.
Missouri Governor Nixon has declared a state of emergency and called out the Missouri National Guard to help.
The local government has begun a door-to-door search since Monday morning. However, their work met difficulties as a new strong thunderstorm continued to hit the city.
Over 1,000 law enforcement officers from four states were dispatched on Joplin to help with disaster response. Meanwhile, up to 217 National Guard troops were on duty and about 30 military police are helping with security and checkpoints as people try to return to their home in areas that may not be safe. Besides, many volunteers also helped ease the misery in Joplin, Xinhua reported.
As many as 68 tornadoes reported hit across seven Midwest states over the weekend, spreading from Oklahoma to Wisconsin, according to the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center. The damage in Missouri was the worst of the day.
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