![]() ![]() "We've been trying to get ahold of him since the tornado happened," Gibson said, adding his own house had been leveled. ![]() "He was last seen here with his two little girls," ages 4 and 5, Gibson said. He pointed to a black pickup that had been tossed into the store's ruins and said it belonged to his roommate's brother. Justin Gibson, 30, huddled with three relatives outside the tangled debris field of what remained of a Home Depot. I came outside and there was nothing left."Īn aching helplessness settled over residents, many of whom could only wander the wreckage bereft and wondering about the fate of loved ones. It tore the roof off my house, everybody's house. I opened a closet and pulled myself into it," he told The Associated Press. I had to get downstairs, glass was flying. "There was a loud huffing noise, my windows started popping. Jeff Lehr, a reporter for the Joplin Globe, said he was upstairs in his home when the storm hit but was able to make his way to a basement closet. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency, and President Barack Obama said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was working with state and local agencies. Travel through and around Joplin was difficult, with Interstate 44 shut down and streets clogged with emergency vehicles and the wreckage of buildings.Įmergency management officials rushed heavy equipment to Joplin to help lift debris and clear the way for search and recovery operations. Winds from the storm carried debris up to 60 miles away, with medical records, X-rays, insulation and other items falling to the ground in Greene County, said Larry Woods, assistant director of the Springfield-Greene County Office of Emergency Management. During one stretch after midnight Monday, emergency vehicles were scrambling nearly every two minutes. ![]() Outside, ambulances and fire trucks waited for calls. At Memorial Hall, a downtown entertainment venue, nurses and other emergency workers from across the region were treating critically injured patients.Īt another makeshift unit at a Lowe's home improvement store, wooden planks served as beds. Triage centers and shelters setup around the city quickly filled to capacity. "You don't typically see metal structures and metal frames torn apart, and that's what you see here." "I've been to about 75 disasters, and I've never seen anything quite like this before," Spencer said. Michael Spencer, a national Red Cross spokesman who also assisted in the aftermath of a tornado that devastated nearby Pierce City in 2003, was also stunned. "I had seen it on television, but until you're standing right here and see the devastation, you can't believe it." "That's a terrible way to say it, but you don't recognize what's across the street. "It's like what you see someplace else, honestly," Lewis said. By early Monday, she still had no details on any deaths or injuries suffered at the hospital in the tornado strike, although she had seen the damaged building. John's, was at home when the tornado sirens began going off. Police officers could be seen combing the surrounding area for bodies. John's patients were evacuated to other hospitals in the region, said Cora Scott, a spokeswoman for the medical center's sister hospital in Springfield.Įarly Monday morning, floodlights from a temporary triage facility lit what remained of the hospital that once held as many 367 patients. It was 30 years old and two layers of brick. "The building that my office was in was not flimsy. Probably for two to three blocks, it's just leveled," he said. Rubble littered a flattened lot where a pharmacy, gas station and some doctor's offices once stood. Matt Sheffer dodged downed power lines, trees and closed streets to make it to his dental office across from the hospital. Nearby, a pile of cars lay crumpled into a single mass of twisted metal. In the parking lot, a helicopter lay crushed on its side, its rotors torn apart and windows smashed. The staff had just a few moments' notice to hustle patients into hallways before the storm struck the nine-story building, blowing out hundreds of windows and leaving the facility useless. Jasper County emergency management director Keith Stammer said an estimated 2,000 buildings were damaged in this city of about 50,000 people some 160 miles south of Kansas City.ĭetails about fatalities and injuries were difficult to obtain even for emergency management officials, because the tornado knocked out power, landline phones and some cellphone towers, said Greg Hickman, assistant emergency management director in Newton County.Īmong the worst-hit locations in Joplin was St. It hit a hospital packed with patients and a commercial area including a Home Depot construction store, numerous smaller businesses and restaurants and a grocery store. Onstot said the twister - believed to be between one-half to three-quarters of a mile wide - was on the ground for nearly four miles.
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