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Frustration grows over missing US tornado victims (AFP)

JOPLIN, Missouri (AFP) – Fear has given way to frustration in this shattered American town as residents await official word on more than 200 loved ones missing since a record tornado killed 125 people.

Officials said Thursday that 232 people were still missing from Sunday's disaster in Joplin, but some of them may be among the unidentified remains being stored in a hastily constructed mass morgue.

Authorities have sought to calm anxious family members while refusing to allow them to visit the morgue to try to identify loved ones, relying instead on a lengthy identification process involving DNA testing and fingerprinting.

"The 232, we can't presume that all of those are deceased," Andrea Spiller, Missouri's deputy director of public safety, told reporters on Thursday.

Some may simply have failed to contact anxious friends and family. There may also still be people trapped in the rubble who have not been officially reported missing, Spiller cautioned.

Asked why families were not being allowed into the morgue to visually identify their loved ones, she replied: "It is not 100 percent accurate, and 100 percent accurate is our goal."

Joplin resident Tammy Niederhelman recounted the great frustration for families coming up against state and city authorities.

She told CNN she wanted closure after the horrific week but was not allowed to see bodies at the morgue as she frantically sought to confirm the death of her 12-year-old son, Zachary.

"It just feels as though the officials that orchestrated this whole deal, they really care less. It seems to me that they want to get on to cleanup and maybe start building or whatever," she said.

Flags were to be flown at half-mast on Friday in honor of the victims of the tornado -- the deadliest to strike America in six decades -- which followed a wave of tornadoes that killed hundreds in the US south last month.

The monster funnel cloud tore apart everything it touched along a path four miles (six kilometers) long and three quarters of a mile (over a kilometer) wide in this city of 50,000.

Crews continue to search through the tangled piles of debris in hope of finding survivors, but hopes were fading five days after the storm.

Anguished families have kept up a desperate hunt for their missing loved ones, but poor and patchy communications plus the complete devastation of some areas have hampered the search.

Officials said they hoped that by publishing the list of 232 names they could locate the missing and ease the frayed nerves of their families.

"Our goal is to get that number to zero," Spillers said."

The heartbreaking pleas for help and information have been replayed constantly on the local radio and on social networking sites.

But for some the long vigil has already ended in sorrow.

Baby Skyular Logsdon was ripped from his mother's arms by the powerful winds, and his desperate family took to the social networking site Facebook for help to find the 16-month-old.

After several false leads and three days of waning hopes, his body was found in a morgue late Wednesday.

"We all love you so much and you will be missed by everyone," his aunt posted on the Facebook page that has been inundated with outpourings of support and condolences.

Still missing is Will Norton, the 18-year-old who was sucked out of his father's Hummer as they were driving home from his high school graduation.

Teams of volunteers joined the search Thursday in what his aunt Tracey wrote was a day "mixed with nervousness and deep hope."

In a further sign of tragedy, some whole families were listed as missing, along with at least 15 people from area nursing homes.

There was the Merritt family, ages two, five, eight, 26, and 28, and the Reyes family, with parents Maria and Fredy and their two girls, aged 3 and 4.

More than 8,000 structures in the midwestern town were damaged or destroyed when the twister packing winds over 200 miles (320 kilometers) an hour came roaring through with just a 24-minute warning.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon meanwhile ordered the state's national guard to remove the wasteland of debris left by the tornado, a mission he described as an "enormous task" but crucial for the city's recovery.

The city has meanwhile sent a request to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for assistance in removing the rubble.

Nixon has announced plans for a community memorial service Sunday, the same day that US President Barack Obama is set to visit the city.


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Trees toppled by storm kill 3 in metro Atlanta (AP)

ATLANTA – Authorities say storms blowing through metro Atlanta toppled trees and power lines, killing at least three people and knocking out power to more than 200,000 customers statewide.

Georgia Power spokesman Jeff Wilson said Friday morning that 65,000 of its customers remain without power, 57,000 of them in metro Atlanta.

Atlanta police spokeswoman Kim Jones said a tree toppled onto a UPS truck, catching it on fire.

Authorities say the stormy weather led to delays of more than two hours for flights leaving Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

Two people were killed in Atlanta when a tree fell on a truck. Atlanta station WSB-TV reports a third person was killed in Cobb County when a tree fell on him while he was clearing debris from a driveway.

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The nation's weather (AP)

By WEATHER UNDERGROUND, For The Associated Press Weather Underground, For The Associated Press – 2 hrs 1 min ago

Severe storms will transition to the East Coast from the Midwest on Friday.

Meanwhile, another system moving off the Rockies brings thunderstorms to the Northern High Plains.

Starting in the East, a low pressure system and associated cold front that brought many tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds to the Central Plains and Midwest will move over the East Coast. As this system pulls in additional moisture and energy from the Atlantic Ocean, it will allow for storms to develop across the Mid-Atlantic and Gulf states. A stationary front also extends northeastward from this low pressure system, kicking up severe storms over the Northeast. Thus, most of the East Coast has been placed under a slight to moderate risk for severe storm development. Expect large hail, damaging winds, heavy downpours and possibly some tornadoes.

Behind this system in the Plains, a low pressure system that brought rain and thunderstorms to the Pacific Northwest and northern California will continue making its way over the Northern Rockies and into the Northern Plains. This system will push a front into the Dakotas, which will have sufficient energy to produce scattered showers and thunderstorms. There is a slight chance that these storms will turn severe. By evening, the cold front will move into the Upper Plains and extend into the Central Plains. The tail end of this system may produce heavier showers and stronger storms as it obtains additional moisture and energy from the Gulf of Mexico.

Meanwhile, high pressure over the Southwest will create another warm and dry day. Fires will remain of concern across the Southwest as humidity drops and surface winds remain strong with gusts up to 35 mph.

Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Thursday ranged from a morning low of 24 degrees at Mullan Pass, Idaho, to a high of 101 degrees at Laredo, Texas.


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Ala. tried to close home where twisters killed 7 (AP)

ASHVILLE, Ala. – The government sued last fall to close an assisted living facility where nine elderly, disabled people lived in two double-wide mobile homes parked in a valley miles from the nearest town. Yet the facility was still open April 27, when a tornado smacked the mobile homes and killed four residents along with the owner, his daughter-in-law and 7-year-old granddaughter.

The state filed suit because Shoal Creek Valley Assisted Living didn't have a license — the fact that it was illegally operating in mobile homes wasn't even mentioned in the complaint. But months passed, winter turned to spring, and the place remained open. Then came the day tornadoes killed more than 200 people across Alabama.

One of those tornadoes, an EF-4 with winds as strong as 180 mph, wiped out the homes in a direct hit, leaving only twisted metal, splintered wood and seven bodies scattered across a horse pasture. That nondescript plot of land about 45 miles northeast of Birmingham was the site of the South's largest cluster of deaths on that epic day of misery.

While other cities and counties suffered more total fatalities in the twisters last month, state emergency management officials across the Southeast said they know of no other single location where more people died in the April outbreak. However, the destruction was so total in some places that it's impossible to determine exactly where some people died, and other victims remain hospitalized.

No one will ever know if the seven people who died in the assisted living center would have survived in a more substantial structure, but 71 patients escaped without injury when another tornado struck the brick-and-masonry La Rocca Nursing Home in Tuscaloosa about 90 minutes before Shoal Creek Valley's trailers were demolished.

This week in Missouri, a larger and more powerful tornado killed 10 residents and one worker when it reduced a Joplin nursing home to a pile of rubble. However, about 80 other residents survived, as did more than 100 at a nearby facility that was also heavily damaged.

Friends and family of the Alabama facility's owner, 56-year-old Ronnie Isbell, described him as loving and concerned, a man who dedicated much of his life to caring for the aged and infirm.

"What was going on? Helping the elderly age with grace and dignity!" Kelly Ward, a relative who has served as a spokeswoman for the family, said in a message exchange through Facebook.

An attorney who represented Isbell, Charlie Robinson, conceded the business lacked the required state license and was operating illegally, but he denied that anyone died simply because it was located in mobile homes. Nearby brick homes were reduced to rubble, too, he said.

"If it was anything short of the situation room at the White House it would have been destroyed," Robinson said. He called Isbell one of the best people he's ever known.

Jim Callahan saw a different side of Isbell and his business. Callahan claims his mother was physically abused at Shoal Creek before she moved to another assisted living home last year.

"I don't see how (Isbell) could have loved those people," Callahan said. Even after Isbell's death, Callahan plans to go ahead with a lawsuit filed last year over the treatment of his mother.

Isbell first opened an assisted living facility with his now ex-wife in the 1970s in nearby Ragland, and about 20 years later he moved the center to Shoal Creek Valley, in St. Clair County. Not far from Neely Henry Lake, the narrow valley is sprinkled with a mix of farms, large brick-and-wood houses and mobile homes.

Court records show two nurses from the Alabama Department of Public Health knocked on the door at the assisted living center on June 3 to investigate a complaint. They said they found nine elderly residents, eight of whom had Alzheimer's disease and weren't able to walk, requiring skilled nursing care. They also found Isbell, who told the nurses he was the owner but didn't have a license.

Apparently unknown to the state — which was acting on a hospital's tip about a patient who developed bad bed sores at Shoal Creek Valley — Callahan's mother already had sued four months earlier claiming she had been mistreated at Isbell's home. Laverne Callahan, who was 83 when she died in February, had deep bed sores and a black eye when her son removed her from the mobile homes, he said.

Jim Callahan said the assisted living home cost his mother $1,500 a month, which ate up all her government checks plus additional money from him and his brother. He didn't like the idea of her living in a mobile home full of elderly, bedridden people in the tornado-prone Southeast, but he said he had little choice.

"It was something I had to accept because I couldn't afford anything else," he said. "I didn't like the situation."

With the Callahan lawsuit moving forward in state court, the State Board of Public Health sued to shut down Isbell's business in October. Robinson, Isbell's lawyer, was the son of the circuit judge assigned to the case, Charles E. Robinson.

Isbell asked a court to throw out the lawsuit, which he claimed was baseless for unspecified reasons, but the court didn't immediately rule. But with his son representing the defendant, Judge Robinson stepped aside from the case Jan. 31, more than three months after the state sued.

A new judge was appointed, but there wasn't another hearing set until May 12 — two weeks after the tornadoes killed Isbell; his daughter-in-law Tammy Isbell, who worked at the assisted living center; and her 7-year-old daughter, Leah. Today, three white crosses bearing their names stand on the property; a stuffed toy bear and a white bow hang on the locked gate.

Only four residents remained at the center by the time the tornado struck. Killed along with the Isbells were Sandra Pledger, 68; Mae Lovell, 97; Bertha Kage, 91; and Oberia Layton Ashley, 86.

Brick houses were leveled along with mobile homes in Shoal Creek Valley, and St. Clair County Coroner Dennis Russell said the destruction was staggering.

"Thirteen people died on that one road," he said.

Isbell's lawyer said no one was forced to remain at Isbell's home, and their relatives knew the center was located in mobile homes. Despite Callahan's claims, Ronnie Isbell generally provided top-quality care, according to Robinson.

"It was the choice of the residents or the choice of their families to be there," he said.

Citing Isbell's death, the second judge dismissed the state's lawsuit against Shoal Creek Valley Assisted Living. Callahan's lawyer, Beverly Owen Barber, said she is moving ahead with the lawsuit against Isbell's estate over the treatment of Laverne Callahan, however.

"We're not going to allow it to be dismissed," Barber said.


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Severe weather batters 11 states (Reuters)

NASHVILLE, Tenn (Reuters) – Communities across the middle of the country cleaned up on Thursday from more tornadoes and high winds after another stormy night, while states further East began facing severe weather problems of their own.

A wave of storms started hitting the South and East Thursday afternoon, with softball-sized hail in Georgia and high winds downing trees in upstate New York.

Thunderstorms accompanied by heavy rains and strong winds in Atlanta late Thursday caused three deaths from falling trees, and left more than 100,000 without power, according to local media reports.

The known toll of dead from Sunday's massive tornado in Joplin, Missouri, meanwhile went up by one on Thursday to 126.

A series of twisters had killed another 16 people in three states on Tuesday night.

By Thursday, nearly 100 hours after the deadliest tornado in the United States in 64 years, officials in Joplin were still trying to find 232 people unaccounted for after the tornado, which also injured more than 900 people.

Search crews with cadaver dogs were still looking for victims in the miles of rubble left by the storm, but hope was fading for finding people alive.

One of those who had been unaccounted for was confirmed dead on Thursday. Skyular Logsdon, a 16-month-old boy ripped from his mother's arms during the tornado, was identified by a great aunt who knew him well, the boy's father told Reuters.

The fate of the boy touched the hearts of thousands as his relatives searched hospitals and morgues after finding his clothes wrapped around a telephone pole and his teddy bear nearby.

The storms in the nation's midsection overnight resulted in at least 81 reports of tornadoes and severe weather across at least 11 states, according to a National Weather Service severe weather map.

"It was a very active day," said David Imy, meteorologist with the National Storm Prediction Center.

Thursday afternoon, locally damaging thunderstorms were seen from the central Gulf Coast to northern New England, according to AccuWeather.com.

Softball-sized hail fell on Morganton, Ga., damaging vehicles, while winds downed trees and power lines in Pennsylvania and New York, the website said.

There were reports of a possible tornado in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, according to AccuWeather. Many areas of the Appalachians will be hit or threatened by the storms Friday evening. Later tonight through Friday, the main threat will be flash, urban and small-stream flooding.

The death toll from the tornadoes that hit Oklahoma Tuesday climbed to 10 with the discovery of the body of Ryan Hamil, 3, on the shoreline of a lake west of Oklahoma City, Captain Chris West of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said on Thursday. His 16-month-old brother Cole had also been killed.

The spate of tornadoes this week has overshadowed severe flooding along the Mississippi River.

Flooding also is a problem in North and South Dakota where residents of Bismarck and Pierre were warned of flooding from the Missouri River.

Severe thunderstorms are possible Friday across most of the country from southeast Montana in the West to the Florida Panhandle in the south and then northeast to northern Vermont, according to weather.com.

The tornadoes overnight ranged from Bedford, Indiana to Smithville, Tennessee and south to Farmersville, Louisiana.

In Smithville, a city about 70 miles southeast of Nashville. a market and a gas station were blown away, and a restaurant was severely damaged, according to Mayor Taft Hendrixson.

"It could have been a whole lot worse if it had stayed on the ground longer," Hendrixson said.

Tornadoes have killed a total of 504 people in the United States so far this year, making it the deadliest tornado year since 1953, according to the National Weather Service.

(Writing by Mary Wisniewski; Reporting by Tim Ghianni, Suzi Parker, Susan Guyett, Steve Olafson, Colleen Jenkins, Kathy Finn, Richard Mattern, David Beasley and Corrie MacLaggan; Editing by Greg McCune and Jerry Norton)


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Tornado Warnings in North Texas Shut Down Airports (ContributorNetwork)

The unwelcome and increasingly familiar sound of tornado warning sirens were heard in yet another state early Wednesday, as officials warned residents in parts of Texas of the possibility that funnel clouds may touch down. The warning covered much of Texas County, following an alert by the National Weather Service that reported cloud formations favorable to the formation of tornadoes.

The Texas County twisters never materialized, to the relief of residents there, but warnings were also issued for North Texas as well, disrupting air travel as potential passengers were forced to evacuate Dallas airports ahead of storms. The area suffered hail and high winds, but fortunately no tornadoes. Airport officials were reportedly being cautious about reopening the airports before inspecting aircraft for damage from the hailstorm.

With the slew of violent storms that have whipped across the central and southern U.S. in recent months have come widespread devastation and an increasingly heavy loss of life. The tornado that leveled Joplin, Mo., on Sunday is now known to have claimed the lives of at least 125 people, with hundreds more still missing.

Just a few days later, more tornadoes in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas claimed the lives of an additional 14 people. That storm system is heading eastward, placing Arkansas, Mississippi, Indiana and Illinois on alert for more tornado activity.

Several media outlets have reported on the alarmingly high rate of tornado activity so far this year. The United States averages approximately 700 tornadoes in the first half of any given year, yet 2011 has already seen more than 1,200 funnels, with at least 500 dead. Weather forecasters blame the patterns of La Nina for the increased activity, and warn that this may be just the beginning.

Not good news for places like Joplin, where search-and-rescue efforts continued through the night on Tuesday and into Wednesday despite the threat of more storms and tornadoes. So far more than 17 people have been pulled from the wreckage. 823 are reported as injured, and an unknown number, thought to be in the hundreds, are still missing.


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2 children, 1 woman found dead in NW Ark flooding (AP)

ROGERS, Ark. – Authorities in northwest Arkansas have recovered the bodies of a woman and two children who were swept away by floodwaters earlier this week.

Benton County's emergency management director Robert McGowen says the bodies were found Wednesday in a submerged car in Butler Creek. The woman, 5-year-old boy and 2-month-old girl went missing late Monday night, along with another woman who has yet to be found.

Authorities say they hadn't been seen since they drove into high waters Monday on their way home. One of the women called her husband and told him water was getting into their car.

Searchers scoured the region since then, using all-terrain vehicles and a helicopter.


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Search for tornado's missing finds few amid debris (AP)

By NOMAAN MERCHANT, JIM SALTER and ALAN SCHER ZAGIER, Associated Press Nomaan Merchant, Jim Salter And Alan Scher Zagier, Associated Press – 2 hrs 3 mins ago

JOPLIN, Mo. – Mike Hare has scoured the ravaged neighborhood where his 16-year-old son Lantz was seen last. He's called hospitals from Dallas to Kansas City and taken dozens of calls offering advice, prayers and hopeful tips.

None of the calls came from Lantz. None offered any hope he might still be alive.

Hare has been looking for his son since Sunday, when much of the southwest Missouri city of Joplin was leveled by a tornado that now ranks as the nation's single deadliest tornado since the National Weather Service started keeping records.

"We know he's hurt somewhere," Hare said Wednesday, his voice breaking. "We just can't sit and keep calling. You've got to be moving."

Hare is among an increasingly desperate group of people in Joplin pleading for help in tracking down one of the dwindling number of people still missing in the wake of Sunday's storm. They're scrawling signs in wreckage, calling in by the hundreds to local radio stations and posting on the Internet. They are inspiring city officials to continue search and rescue efforts, yet there is no talk yet of recovery.

Officials planned to release a list Thursday morning of people still considered missing.

"I am hopeful," Joplin Fire Chief Mitch Randles said. "We've had stories from earthquakes and tsunamis and other disasters of people being found two or three weeks later, and we are hopeful we'll have a story like that to tell."

Randles and others leading the search effort say it's impossible to know exactly how many people are truly missing, since many may have simply left the area without getting in touch with their families. They believe most will be OK.

Amid that confusion, away from formal grid searches in the debris fields, children are looking for their parents and friends are searching for neighbors in any way they can.

With erratic cell phone service throughout Joplin and travel hindered by damaged cars and blocked streets, many residents have turned to local radio stations as a hub of information, sifting through around-the-clock reports of missing family members.

The Zimmer Radio Group, which operates seven radio stations in Joplin, abandoned its various music formats for 24-hour tornado coverage starting late Sunday afternoon. Newscaster Chad Elliot, whose home was destroyed, slept in his office when he wasn't on the air. His dog Rusty barked loudly behind a closed door.

"I thought we were going to do a normal severe weather broadcast," he said. "Obviously, that's not the case."

Calls flowed in — hundreds of them — from people looking for displaced loved ones, or calling in to say they were OK. By Wednesday, reports of missing friends and relatives were decreasing, replaced by updates of successful, tearful reunions.

"Folks wondering about Larry Allen, who was living near the Stained Glass Theater, he is fine," an announcer said Wednesday afternoon. "He's staying with friends."

Another listener reported, "I want everyone to know that Alice DuBois, 94 years old, is alive and well. We hadn't heard from her until yesterday afternoon. We thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers."

Pleas were rampant on social networks.

"This little boy was taken to Memorial Hall," one poster wrote next to a picture posted on KRGZ-FM's Facebook page. "His name is David and all he know's is that his mother's name is Crystal and his brother is Zachary. He was airlifted to Tulsa. Please help find his mom."

Other cries for help were low-tech: A tornado-battered pickup truck was spray-painted with the message, "Looking 4 Zachary Williams Age 12," along with a phone number.

At the Red Cross shelter at Missouri Southern State University, a steady stream of people visited a table where Bill Benson took down the names of people for a "safe and well" database. Some people entered their names; others hoped to find the name of their loved ones in the database.

Benson has seen parents looking for missing children, saying "we had one where a 17-month-old infant was lost." He contacted police and had not heard if the child was found. But more people have come to Benson searching for seniors — more than 100 were listed as missing Wednesday.

At Freeman Hospital, Karen Mitchell waited Wednesday hoping for word on her missing son, Robert Bateson, or her grandson, Abe Khoury. Khoury was found and taken to Freeman, where he was in critical condition. But Mitchell and her family continued to search for Bateson.

When she arrived in Joplin on Tuesday, Mitchell walked through the wreckage of her son's apartment building. She recognized his mattress sitting in a pile. Her family continued to post Bateson's information online. She prayed for a miracle.

"I am waiting on God to tell me where he's at," she said. "God is going to take him to me."

Kathy Watson, a marketing team member and front desk volunteer at Freeman, said the hospital was deluged with calls and visits from searchers, sometimes in vain.

"You want to be able to say, `Not only do we have your loved one, but they're fine,' but you can't say that," Watson said.

The evening of the tornado, Lantz Hare was driving with a friend who said the two tried to take cover in the parking lot of a grocery store. The tornado shattered the windows and crumpled the car, and Mike Hare found Lantz's backpack in the wreckage.

He said he would keep searching until he found his son, dead or alive.

"If you look at the ground, life will pass you by," he said. "I won't let life pass me by."


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The nation's weather (AP)

By WEATHER UNDERGROUND, For The Associated Press Weather Underground, For The Associated Press – 2 hrs 57 mins ago

The focus of severe weather activity will shift eastward Thursday as the strong storm system that brought tornadoes to Missouri, Illinois and Indiana moves through Illinois into Indiana.

Warm, moist air ahead of this system will fuel more rain and thunderstorms from the Central Gulf Coast States through the Eastern Valley into New York. This activity is expected to decrease through the midday as the system weakens. Despite some weakening, warm and unstable conditions ahead of this system and its associated cold front will cause areas from the Central Gulf States through Upstate New York to be at slight risk of severe weather development. The strongest instability will focus from the Tennessee Valley and Southern Appalachians through Upstate New York. While damaging wind will be the primary severe weather concern in these regions, atmospheric conditions, especially from the Ohio Valley through Upstate New York, may become favorable for supercell development.

Behind this activity, high pressure will prevail across the Plains with calm conditions. Hot, dry and windy conditions will maintain fire weather concerns and lead to an increased threat of wildfires in parts of New Mexico and Texas.

In the West, a late season storm will move through the Northern Intermountain West with gusty winds, unseasonably cold temperatures and a mix of light rain showers and high elevation snow showers. Meanwhile, cool and unsettled conditions will continue in the Pacific Northwest.

Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Wednesday ranged from a morning low of 24 degrees at Wolf Creek Pass, Colo., to a high of 101 degrees at Laredo, Texas.


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Body found of toddler missing in Joplin tornado (AP)

JOPLIN, Mo. – Authorities have identified the body of a toddler whose disappearance in the Joplin tornado drew an outpouring of concern when it was posted on Facebook.

His mother, Carol Jo Tate, told The Associated Press Wednesday that the body of 16-month-old Skyular Logsdon was identified at the morgue handling tornado victims.

More than 10,000 people supported a "Bring Skyular Logsdon home" page set up after the boy vanished in Sunday's tornado.

Tate, 18, remains hospitalized with severe injuries at Via Christi Hospital in Pittsburg, Kan.


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Powerful storms pound several central US states (AP)

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – In storm-weary middle America, many people were counting themselves fortunate after powerful storms swept through the region for the third time in four days but apparently claimed no lives.

Dozens of people were injured, mobile homes were flipped and roofs were torn off houses when tornadoes and thunderstorms hit Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and other states Wednesday evening.

In southern Indiana, neighbors used flashlights to check on each other and their homes and barns near Bloomington after powerful winds overturned two mobile homes. Crews worked overnight to clear uprooted trees and downed power lines after a tornado touched down in a mostly rural area about 25 miles south near Bedford.

The extent of the damage wouldn't be known until daybreak, but residents expressed relief that no deaths were reported in the latest round of storms even though several homes were destroyed and more than a dozen people were injured, including three or four children.

"We're very fortunate," said Lawrence County Sheriff Sam Craig.

Wednesday's storms followed a deadly outbreak Tuesday in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas that killed at least 15 people. On Sunday, the nation's deadliest single tornado since 1950 killed 125 in the southwest Missouri city of Joplin.

The National Weather Service issued tornado watches and a series of warnings in a dozen states earlier Wednesday, stretching northwest from Texas though the Mississippi River valley to Ohio. By Thursday morning, tornado watches were in effect in most of Mississippi, northwestern Alabama and central Kentucky.

"This is just a wild ride," said Beverly Poole, chief meteorologist at the National Weather Service's office in Paducah, Ky.

Heavy rain, hail and lightning pounded Memphis on Wednesday night as a tornado warning sounded. There were no confirmed reports of tornadoes touching down.

Back in southern Indiana, tow truck driver Martin Poteat was in the parking lot of the Walmart on the south side of Bloomington when the storm struck, ripping a cart corral loose and sending it into his truck and spawning up a debris cloud.

"Everything came up off the ground. Everything was just flying," he said.

Earlier in the day, as many as 25 people suffered minor injuries when a tornado damaged several homes and businesses in the central Missouri city of Sedalia. Officials said most were able to get themselves to the hospital for treatment.

"Considering the destruction that occurred in Joplin — being that we're in tornado alley and Sedalia has historically been hit by tornadoes in the past — I think people heeded that warning," Pettis County Sheriff Kevin Bond said. "And so, I think that helped tremendously."

Officials in Sedalia ended the school year several days early because of damage to buses.

Sean McCabe was rushing to the basement of his mother's home in Sedalia when the tornado struck and shoved him down the final flight of steps. The 30-year-old suffered scrapes and cuts on his hands, wrists, back and feet. He said neighbors and firefighters helped him get out.

Most of the roof was ripped off the house, which was among the more heavily damaged homes in the area. McCabe, who has a service dog for epilepsy, said both his family's dogs survived, including one found muddy and wet about a block away.

"I saw little debris and then I saw big debris, and I'm like `OK, let's go,'" McCabe said.

Elsewhere in the hard-hit neighborhood, law officers stood on corners and electrical crews worked on power lines. Numerous trees were down, and tarps were covering some houses while others were missing chunks of their roofs. People were cleaning debris and sifting through belongings.

In Illinois, strong winds, rain and at least four possible tornadoes knocked down power lines and damaged at least one home and a number of farm buildings across the central and eastern parts of the state.

"Mostly it was shingles off roofs and garages," said Illinois Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Patti Thompson.


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Joplin tornado death toll rises to 125 (AP)

JOPLIN, Mo. – Rescuers refused to be deterred from their efforts to find survivors beneath Joplin's jagged piles of tornado rubble, even as the death toll rose Wednesday to 125.

No new survivors had been pulled from the city's wrecked neighborhoods, but determined crews carried on with the search, checking some areas for a fourth time since Sunday's disaster. They planned to do a fifth sweep, too.

"We never give up. We're not going to give up," City Manager Mark Rohr told a news conference. "We'll continue to search as we develop the next phase in the process."

Rohr raised by three the death toll of the nation's deadliest single tornado in more than 60 years. The estimated number of injured climbed to more than 900.

At least 50 dogs have joined the search, and the teams were also using listening devices in hopes of picking up the faint sound of anyone still alive beneath the collapsed homes and businesses.

"We've had stories from earthquakes and tsunamis and other disasters of people being found two or three weeks later," Fire Chief Mitch Randles said. "And we are hopeful that we'll have a story like that to tell."

Searchers "try to get into every space. We're yelling. We've got the dogs sniffing. We've got listening devices," Randles said.

Meanwhile, roughly 100 people were reviewing information about individuals who were reported missing after the storm. Rohr said the group was making progress, but he declined to say how many remain unaccounted for.

Authorities have cautioned that people who are unaccounted for are not necessarily dead or trapped in debris. Many, if not most, of them probably survived the storm but have failed to tell friends and family where they are.

The Joplin tornado was the deadliest single twister since the National Weather Service began keeping official records in 1950. It was the eighth-deadliest in U.S. history.

Scientists said the system was an EF-5, the strongest rating assigned to tornadoes, with winds of more than 200 mph.

It also appeared to be a rare "multivortex" tornado, with two or more small and intense centers of rotation orbiting the larger funnel.

Bill Davis, the lead forecaster on a weather service team sent to survey the damage, said he would need to look at video to confirm that.

But, he said, the strength of the tornado was evident from the many stout buildings that were damaged: St. John's Regional Medical Center, a bank that was destroyed except for its vault, a Pepsi bottling plant and "numerous well-built residential homes that were basically leveled."

Davis recalled his first thought on arriving in town to conduct the survey: "Where do you start?"


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Tropical Storm Chedeng Upgraded to Typhoon as it Heads Toward Philippines (ContributorNetwork)

While many people in the United States are focused on the devastation caused by a series of tornadoes that leveled Joplin, Mo., and wreaked havoc through parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas, tropical storm Chedeng continues to strand passengers in the Philippines. The tropical storm was upgraded to a typhoon by the Philippine Coast Guard today.

A little more than 3,600 people remain stranded at various places throughout the Bicol Region. The Bicol Region, along with several other provinces, including Catanduanes, Albay and Samar, among others, are under a more severe storm warning, signal No. 2, than other areas of the country. Much of the rest of the country, including Masbate, Marinduque, and Southern Quezon, is under the lesser public storm warning No. 1.

The Philippines capital of Manila was put on "blue alert" today. That means 60 percent of their available emergency and rescue workers are to be ready for "immediate response" if they are needed, with more to follow if necessary. A blue alert is the second-highest alert level as identified by the Metro Manila Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (MMDRRC) and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).

In other areas that are known to be prone to flooding and landslides, measures are being taken to ensure the safety of all residents. The governor of Albay province ordered military vehicles to move the more than 200,000 residents of Legazpi City and surrounding areas to safe ground, fearing the potentially devastating consequences if people were not evacuated promptly.

By late afternoon today, the Philippines Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) had issued warnings that Chedeng had begun to move significantly faster. It was subsequently spotted a little more than 310 miles off the coast of Northern Samar, moving eastward.

U.S. military weather forecasters have issued their own warnings to the Philippines as well. They are predicting that along with its accelerated pace, Typhoon Chedeng is also very likely to become stronger as it heads towards land. They cited " favorable oceanographic conditions " for their estimates.


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Oklahoma Weather: Our Brush with a Tornado (ContributorNetwork)

The day began like any other. I had finally enlisted the help of my son in doing some yard work. He had hand built lattice for our porch. The goal was to have it entirely enclosed before summer so that I could enjoy the space with shade. I had imagined filling it with plants and having a more tropical feel. Such was not to be.

Within an hour or so of my beautiful sunny Oklahoma day, the skies began the transformation into the all too familiar pre-rain look. My son, perked up immediately. I imagine he thought his work day would soon be over with a legitimate excuse of inclement weather. The temperature began to drop from the wonderful 80 plus degrees. "That is too rapid for a regular thunderstorm," I thought. Living in Oklahoma as long as we have, we were well versed in the signs of tornado watching.

I gathered my gardening supplies and then turned on our Stormwatch radio. I was right. The news from the "Forewarn Team" confirmed this was a tornado watch. My son, with much glee, came inside, plopped in front of the television to watch some mindless show. As soon as he was comfortable, the weather alert broke in. My son was visibly annoyed that he still might have work to do.

I was increasingly concerned as the weatherman listed the sightings of wall clouds and formations in "tornado-speak" that were locations that I knew too well. The listings began generally -- Canadian County, west Oklahoma County. Then more specific and closer -- Piedmont, El Reno, Chickasaw.

The storm chasers were out in full force. David Payne held me in rapt attention as he described the scene along Interstate 40 and 281 Highway. We saw the wall clouds, the circular motions beginning, then the raindrops becoming larger as the sky darkened.

First one funnel formed, then another, and another -- unprecedented. I had never seen the formation so rapidly. Two of the funnels touched down, then two more. And then they did something that I had never witnessed. The funnels moved closer together forming a half-mile wedge. We could hear the sound of a train in the distance. The weatherman broke in with new location updates- May and Hefner Road, Council Road, Rockwell. The tornadoes were forming miles from my home.

"Get the dogs," was all I could force out. My son and husband, both Eagle Scouts, were already into action with preparations. Pillows and blankets were gathered. Flashlights, extra batteries, water and my luxury items -- crochet work and a book. We were ready to go underground.

The radio blared the specifics of the tornadoes. 215 mph winds had been measured. This was another F5 heading directly toward the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. More sightings of funnels forming south of my home actually frightened me. The weather sirens were deafening. My cell phone erupted with messages from family and friends across the country asking if we were okay. For the first time, I wondered if I could get cell reception in the storm shelter.

And then the rains came. Hard, pounding, huge drops fell. Wind speed picked up and I saw the work on my porch disappear. The doghouse moved a few inches, trees bent against the harshness of the wind. But the skies were lighter than before! Whatever plans Mother Nature had for my neighborhood were changed at the last minute. The downpour lightened to a thunderstorm. The weatherman announced that the tornadoes had changed direction and were moving towards Edmond. We had been spared.


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Severe Storms Hit Wichita, Kan. (ContributorNetwork)

Tuesday morning brought the threat of severe weather to south-central Kansas. Weather forecasters predicted dangerous, violent storms, but our day dawned bright, clear and gorgeous. The weather guys said that the later in the afternoon that the storms spun up, the worse it would be.

However, in the early afternoon, it was looking like the dire predictions were not to come true. But true to its Midwest reputation, we never breathe a sigh of relief too soon, as the weather can change at the blink of an eye.

Everything changed around 4 p.m. The skies got dark and threatening, and I brought my kids and dogs inside. As we watched the news and saw the reports of storms hitting Oklahoma City just an hour south of us, we started to get worried.

The same storm system was dropping heavy rain and hail and strong winds at our home in Wichita, Kan. We turned on the television to the local news station, and kept an eye on the skies outside. I sent my kids and three dogs to the basement, just in case.

I do tend to go overboard when it comes to their protection, but with two kids and three young dogs, it takes us a minute or two to get everyone corralled in the basement, so I like to be proactive. It helps that we have a finished rec room downstairs, so the kids can play games and the dogs can lounge on their pillows and play with toys while they wait.

We got quite a bit of rain and hail, and heavy winds. We lost some branches off our mature trees in the front yard, but we had no major damage.

This was a relief, not only because we were in the house during the storm, but also because our house is also on the market, and we didn't want to have repairs to make in the middle of prospective buyers visiting. We were very lucky, as the same storm system spawned multiple tornadoes just to the south of us in Oklahoma, leaving several people dead and one unaccounted for.


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Tornado death toll rises, no more survivors found (Reuters)

JOPLIN, Mo (Reuters) – The death toll from a monster tornado that savaged Joplin, Missouri, rose to 125 on Wednesday and tornadoes overnight in nearby states caused at least 15 more deaths.

Three days after the deadliest single tornado in the United States in 64 years, rescue teams with dogs sifted through rubble in Joplin without finding anyone alive on Wednesday.

Authorities said the operation was still a search and rescue, but hope of finding more people alive was fading.

The number of people injured by the massive tornado was revised up to more than 900, according to local authorities, from 823 earlier in the day.

Officials were no longer saying how many people are missing because they believe the figure of 1,500 missing mentioned earlier in the week was inflated by double counting or people simply being out of town.

Some families continued a desperate search for missing loved ones amid the ruins of homes and businesses.

Fifteen-month-old Skyular Logsdon, whose blue teddy bear, red t-shirt and pants were found wrapped around a telephone pole after the storm, remains missing, his great grandmother told Reuters on Wednesday.

His injured parents were found and taken to a hospital after the tornado. But the little boy has vanished.

"We're still hopeful," said Deb Cummins, great grandmother of the missing boy. She said they have checked every possible hospital.

Another wave of tornadoes roared across the Midwest on Tuesday night, leaving nine dead in Oklahoma, four fatalities in Arkansas and two in Kansas, officials said.

In Newcastle, south of Oklahoma City, a storm blew the steeple off Jesus Alive Church and carried it nearly 100 yards away, where it landed on the doorstep of the longtime pastor's 86-year-old mother, Lovina Frizzell.

"I said 'Oh, my goodness, there's the steeple,'" Frizzell said as she swept her front porch.

In Oklahoma alone, seven tornadoes tore across the state overnight, according to the National Weather Service. The deadliest of those, which killed seven persons, left a 75-mile path of destruction and lasted two hours.

Oklahoma authorities said a 22-year-old man died in hospital of injuries from the storm, bringing the death toll in the state to nine.

Severe weather was continuing on Wednesday evening further east in Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and north into Illinois and Indiana, although winds so far were not as threatening as on Tuesday night, according to meteorologists.

One funnel cloud struck Sedalia, Missouri, a town of 20,000 residents, on Wednesday afternoon, damaging homes and businesses, overturning vehicles, downing power lines and rupturing gas lines, emergency officials said.

Nervous Joplin residents were relieved after the threat of another tornado heading for the city proved to be false overnight.

The Joplin tornado on Sunday was rated an EF-5, the highest possible on the Enhanced Fujita scale of tornado power and intensity, with winds of at least 200 miles per hour.

EF-5 tornadoes are rare in the United States but already this year there have been at least four. They are so destructive that experts said they can turn a house into a missile.

Authorities in Joplin struggled to cope with the massive destruction. Some 14,000 customers in the city of 50,000 were still without power, water pressure was low in many homes and a local cable and cellphone provider had only about 20 percent of its customers back up and running normally.

A system of permits to allow residents back to their damaged homes and prevent looting was abandoned on Wednesday as long lines formed. Officials decided instead to keep a strong police and National Guard presence while allowing people free access to the miles of damaged neighborhoods.

This year has seen an unusually high number of tornadoes, with 1,168 as of May 22, compared to an average of about 671 by this time, according to Joshua Wurman, president of the Center for Severe Weather Research in Boulder, Colorado.

The U.S. is on pace to break the record for deaths from tornadoes this season, the National Weather Service has said.

(Writing by Carey Gillam and Greg McCune; Additional reporting by Suzi Parker, Steve Olafson, and Kevin Murphy; Editing by Peter Bohan)


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Understanding Tornado Terminology: What is an EF-5 Tornado? (ContributorNetwork)

With killer tornadoes in half a dozen states in the last month, information about the effective force of each tornado has been thrown around, but few people use the terms properly and fewer still know what they mean.

The Fujita scale was first proposed in 1971 and suggested a rating system for tornadoes and hurricanes based on the wind strength and damage done by the tornado. Since the evaluation of damage cannot begin while the tornado is on the ground, it is improper to discuss a tornado as an F-anything in the midst of the storm.

After a super outbreak of tornadoes around Oklahoma City in 1997, the National Weather Service argued that the wind strength estimates for Fujita scale needed to be revised, resulting in the adoption of the Enhance Fujita Scale, or EF rating of storms.

For clarity, both the largest of the tornadoes to hit Alabama on April 27 and the May 22 tornado in Joplin, Mo., were believed to be EF-4 tornadoes. However, the Severe Storms Center reviews data from the events long after they happen and may change a storms classification based on debris patterns and other information collected over months.

For example, on Nov. 19, 1991, a storm hit Marion, Ill., that was initially classified as a microburst, a sudden downburst of straight-line winds. Six months later, the Storm Prediction Center had reclassified it to an EF-3 tornado.

According to the NWS, the EF scale functions from 0 to 5 and while in theory an F-6 tornado could have been possible under the original Fujita scale, the enhanced scale considers an EF-5 representative of total destruction. Since nothing goes beyond total destruction, a tornado greater than an EF-5 cannot exist.

Based on the EF scale, an EF-0 event represents winds of less than about 75 mph and would damage roofs and tree limbs. An EF-5 tornado would have winds in excess of 261 mph and include total or near total destruction of all types of construction.

Tornado terminology is often used incorrectly, but the most important thing to understand is that the classification will always come after the fact. Until the storm is over, the tornado has no EF rating at all.

Lucinda Gunnin cut her teeth as a reporter covering Illinois government as an intern in the statehouse pressroom. She now brings 20 years experience and insight to covering news.


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Japanese from nuke town make brief visit to homes (AP)

TAMURA, Japan – Donning white protective suits and masks, neighbors of Japan's radiation-leaking nuclear plant were finally able to return home Thursday more than two months after the crisis began, but were only given two hours to stuff their belongings into garbage bags before leaving again.

Some residents stole a few minutes to light incense at a makeshift shrine in Namie, one of the deserted, evacuated towns frozen in time since March 11. Debris is still piled several stories high there, with a ship resting precariously atop one heap.

Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from towns near the plant — including Futaba, home to the complex — soon after Japan's massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami flooded the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, which then began spewing radiation. Local officials and nuclear experts escorted several dozen of them back for a two-hour visit Thursday.

"It was just like it was when the quake hit," said Anna Takano, a 17-year-old high school student. "It felt very strange."

Takano said she packed up as much clothing from her home as she could and then made a 10-minute visit to her family grave site.

For most, it was the first time they had been able to check on homes and possessions. Similar visits began earlier for towns farther away from the plant, but Thursday's excursion went deeper into the 12-mile (20-kilometer) no-go zone around the plant than any before it.

Many evacuees from the nuclear zone did not realize how long the crisis would drag on and left with only the clothes they were wearing and their purses or wallets.

Due to radiation concerns, officials allowed only two people per household to return and let them stay at their homes only for two hours. They gave residents no more than one large black plastic bag for collecting things, because of space restrictions and fears of contamination.

"I planned very carefully what I would get," said Mikio Tadano, an architect. "I wanted to get my writing tools, my bankbook, and my daughter's school uniform."

Tadano said his daughter had transferred to a new school outside the zone where she was one of only four students without a uniform — all of them evacuees.

In Tamura, a town on the edge of the zone, residents donned white protective suits from head to foot at a sanitized gymnasium near the 12-mile (20-kilometer) perimeter, and then went into the zone by bus.

After the disaster knocked out cooling systems at the plant, it suffered explosions, fires and spewed radioactive particles into the air, prompting the government to order 80,000 residents around the plant to evacuate.

Workers are pumping water into the reactors to cool their cores, but that water — now highly radioactive — is then spilling out and pooling around the complex.

Workers found a leak Thursday in a temporary storage tank that they're using to hold some of that contaminated water, said Junichi Matsumoto, spokesman for operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. There was no immediate sign it was making its way into the sea or that radiation levels in the air nearby had risen, he said.

Radiation levels in most areas have since declined, but are believed to still pose potential health hazards if sustained for long periods of time.

The radiation in the air near the front gate of the plant surged to 12 millisieverts per hour on March 15, just hours after a third reactor exploded. On Thursday, the radiation level had fallen to 1 percent of that — 114 microsieverts, or 0.114 millisieverts — according to TEPCO.

A typical chest X-ray emits about 50 to 100 microsieverts.

In the town of Namie, near Futaba, the radiation in the air was as high as 0.73 microsieverts per hour Thursday, regional nuclear safety official Masato Kino said. That's about half the level measured on March 30, the earliest date for which readings for the town were collected.

With better data now coming in, the government also recently added more areas to the evacuated zone, meaning another 7,000 outside the no-go zone in places previously believed to be safe are just now preparing to leave their towns.

Including those left homeless by the quake and tsunami, more than 100,000 people remain in shelters across northern Japan. More than 25,000 were killed or are missing.

As the hardships of living in shelters became more acute, the government came under intense pressure to let evacuees back in for short trips. It initially said the situation was too dangerous and the plant too unstable. But after announcing last month that the evacuation order would likely drag on for another six to nine months, the day trips were approved.

Thursday's trip by about 60 townspeople started with a briefing by Futaba officials and safety instructions by experts from TEPCO.

The residents were screened for radiation after the visit, but none showed health-threatening levels of exposure.

So far, 588 people have made visits to their homes. Another 16,000 more from nine towns are still lined up for trips that will be conducted over the next several weeks, according to another NISA official, Tatsuyuki Yamauchi.

A government team also went with the residents to rescue stranded dogs. They brought out four, all of which were in good spirits. Earlier in the crisis, when prohibitions on entering the zone were not strictly enforced, several private groups left food and water for lost dogs, keeping many alive long enough to be rescued and returned to their owners.

Cats have been more difficult to bring back. None were rescued Thursday.

Mihoko Watanabe, 73, said she left food and water for her cat, who remains at her home in Futaba but could not be captured and rescued.

"I'm glad she's alive," Watanabe said. "But it's very sad. She's 23 years old."

___

Associated Press Writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.


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Forecasts, TV and luck eased tornado risk in Okla. (AP)

By KRISTI EATON and CHUCK BARTELS, Associated Press Kristi Eaton And Chuck Bartels, Associated Press – Wed May 25, 9:36 pm ET

PIEDMONT, Okla. – When three tornadoes marched toward Oklahoma City and its suburbs, thousands of people in the path benefited from good forecasts, luck and live television to avoid the kind of catastrophe that befell Tuscaloosa, Ala., and Joplin, Mo.

Although at least 15 people died in the latest round of violent weather that started Tuesday, schools and offices closed early, giving many families plenty of time to take shelter. And even stragglers were able to get to safety at the last minute because TV forecasters narrated the twisters' every turn.

"We live in Oklahoma and we don't mess around," Lori Jenkins of Guthrie said after emerging from a neighbor's storm shelter to find her carport crumpled and her home damaged.

The people of Oklahoma City, which has been struck by more tornadoes than any other U.S. city, knew the storms were coming. Anxiety was perhaps running higher than usual Tuesday after last month's twister outbreak in the South that killed more than 300 people and a Sunday storm that killed at least 125 in Joplin, Mo.

The Oklahoma twisters proved to be weaker than the other tornadoes. But the minute-by-minute accounts of the developing weather helped thousands of people stay abreast of the danger.

Television helicopters broadcast live footage while the system approached the metropolitan area of 1.2 million people — calling out to specific communities like Piedmont to "Take cover now!"

In Guthrie, about 30 miles north of the capital city, Ron Brooks was watching when he learned that a tornado was barreling toward him. He heeded the weatherman's warning, scooped up his two children and took cover with his wife in their laundry room.

"When they told us to get into the shelter or interior room, we did that," Brooks said. "The first year I moved to Oklahoma, in 1997, I saw a funnel drop out of a wall cloud. Since seeing one, I've always taken it pretty seriously." He emerged 20 minutes later, relieved to learn that the tornado passed just north of his home.

Another line of severe storms swept through the nation's midsection Wednesday, mainly east of Oklahoma. A tornado warning was briefly issued for downtown Kansas City, Mo., and at least two weak tornadoes touched down in or near the suburbs.

A few others were reported in Illinois. The storms moved later into Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee.

In Joplin, the city manager said Wednesday that 125 people had died in the storm, raising by three the toll of the nation's deadliest single tornado since 1950. He said more than 900 people had been injured.

Rescue and recovery work continued, with crews repeating grid searches for any survivors who might still be buried in rubble. Structural engineers were sent inside the ruins of St. John's Medical Center, which was crippled by the twister, to see if the hospital could be saved.

Back in the Oklahoma City area, at least nine people were killed, despite broadcasters offering live coverage of the storms for two hours before the bad weather actually hit around the evening rush hour.

Across the border in Arkansas, people in the tiny hamlet of Denning didn't have the luxury of an early warning. A tornado killed at least one person there. Storms left three others dead elsewhere in Arkansas and killed two in Kansas.

The storms arrived in Denning in the darkness, with a warning posted only about 10 minutes before a tornado nearly obliterated the town of 270 shortly after midnight.

Troy Ellison didn't even have that much time.

He was watching a movie in his mobile home when he switched on the TV news. The tornado was four minutes away.

"We were going to take the work truck and get out," Ellison said. "I looked out the back door with my son and it was coming."

He dove under the kitchen table with his wife and two sons just before the tornado hit. "It got that growling sound and the windows popped," he said.

The tornado ripped the roof off his home and collapsed his workshop next door. Somehow, the family escaped unharmed.

Then Ellison went outside and saw the family dog, Jager, his paws splayed out on the ground. The animal "looked like someone stepped on him." Ellison assumed he was dead.

But the dog, a pit bull-boxer mix, turned out to be fine. By Wednesday, he was prancing around in the sun as the Ellisons moved belongings out of their home.

"He must have known to stay low to the ground," Ellison said.

Oklahoma City has been hit by tornadoes 146 times, according to the federal government's Storm Prediction Center. That history brings respect for severe storms and a simple rule for people who find themselves in a twister's path: Get out of the way or get underground.

"I think Oklahomans, simply because we're around it so much, take very seriously the threat of severe weather. It's something we live with year-round," said Michelann Ooten, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Emergency Management. "We have a genuine respect for the severe weather here."

Part of that comes from learning to deal with bad weather at a young age, Ooten said.

The long track of the storm in Piedmont gave Lynn Hartman's family time to take shelter and then run away. As warning sirens sounded, Hartman said, she huddled in the pantry of her Piedmont home with her two children and the family dog until her husband arrived home from work.

"We're there just crying and praying," Hartman said, and her daughter, Sierra, 10, was saying repeatedly, "I just don't want to die."

The family then decided to flee as the storm drew closer. They crossed the Oklahoma City area to Shawnee. Once there, sirens sounded again for a storm approaching from the south. The four drove around for three hours before returning to find their roof gone. The pantry was standing, but Hartman was not convinced the family would have survived.

Ooten said trying to outrun a tornado is dangerous.

"Find the sturdiest building you can gain access to," she said. "Unless you're an expert, I wouldn't try to outrun a tornado. You're not in charge. Mother Nature is the one in charge."

___

Bartels reported from Denning, Ark.


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Traumatized Joplin on edge as more storms rake Missouri (Reuters)

JOPLIN, Mo (Reuters) – Traumatized residents kept a wary eye on storm clouds hanging on Wednesday over the shredded remains of a large portion of this city.

Chainsaws and hammering could be heard in the neighborhoods surrounding the hardest hit areas three days after a devastating tornado ripped through this town of 50,000, killing 125 and injuring at least 823.

Residents took advantage of hours of sunlight to check their property and clear debris. But as adrenaline and shock faded, residents near the damaged zone described a fear of every rumbling in the wind.

Overnight, another wave of killer tornadoes roared across the Midwest, leaving at least nine people dead in Oklahoma, four dead in Arkansas and two in Kansas, officials said.

And on Wednesday, several fast-moving, strong storms raked Missouri, triggering tornado warnings all across the state.

Jerry Harris rode out 200 miles-per-hour winds with his daughter in a closet in his friend's homes, which was all that remained of the residence after the storm passed.

The 42-year-old had years of training as a 911 dispatcher, he said, but felt panic the next morning when he heard the rumbling of a heavy truck.

"It just scared me to death," Harris said.

Now, he is obsessed with having all his children around during storm warnings to assure himself they are safe.

Rick Rice, a 57-year-old truck driver, said he would never again dismiss the sirens he ignored Sunday. He had continued to remodel his bathroom as the tornado approached. The storm left his home uninhabitable.

Now he spends his day monitoring the Internet for weather updates haunted by the roaring of the wind.

"When I hear the noise, I can't get it out of my mind," Rice said.

Even residents who missed the worst of the storm changed habits. Greg Salzer, a 37-year-old social worker, watched the tornado from a safe distance. He and his wife restocked their storm shelter the next day with shoes, important papers and dog leashes.

"We spent Monday going through the storm shelter cleaning," he said.

On Wednesday, he was helping his uncle, 66-year-old Frederick Dalton, clean debris not far from a ruined hospital.

Dalton said he had walked for blocks after the storm to find his wife safe at a destroyed church.

The Joplin tornado on Sunday was rated an EF-5, the highest possible on the Enhanced Fujita scale of tornado power and intensity, with winds of at least 200 miles per hour.

(Reporting by James B. Kelleher)


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Thousands evacuate as typhoon skirts Philippines (AP)

MANILA, Philippines – Thousands of people along the eastern Philippine coastline were moving to temporary shelters Thursday as a powerful typhoon packing strong winds and plenty of rain roared toward the country's northeast.

Typhoon Songda was not expected to make landfall but will skirt along shores with winds of up to 93 miles (150 kilometers) per hour and rainfall of 1.2 inches (30 millimeters), the government weather bureau said.

"It has a big radius, so it can affect many areas even if it does not make landfall," said forecaster Mario Palafox.

About 20 typhoons hit the Philippines every year, killing hundreds of people and destroying crops despite government efforts to minimize casualties and damage by ordering early evacuations.

In central Albay province, Gov. Joey Salceda sent military trucks to begin moving 250,000 residents from coastal and landslide-prone villages and areas in the path of debris from the Mayon volcano. He also offered 11 pounds (five kilograms) of rice as an incentive for each family that evacuates.

Government offices in the region were closed and flights canceled. More than 7,000 people were stranded in ports after the coast guard barred sea travel in areas with typhoon warnings.

In other provinces leading up to the northwest, officials have collected rubber boats and food supplies and put rescuers on standby.

"Local government officials have enough time to prepare, so we hope we have" no casualties, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.

President Benigno Aquino III left on a visit to Thailand on Thursday but instructed officials to send him regular updates.


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Japan opposition eyes no-confidence motion (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan's biggest opposition party plans to submit a no-confidence motion to parliament, its leader said on Thursday, piling pressure on unpopular Prime Minister Naoto Kan as he struggles with a crisis at a tsunami-crippled nuclear power plant.

It remains unclear if a motion against Kan's government would gain enough support from other groups, including rebels in his own Democratic Party (DPJ), to force the prime minister to resign or call a snap election.

But even if Kan manages to stay in power longer than his four predecessors, who were gone in about a year or less, the chances of progress toward fixing the ills of the world's third largest economy seem slim.

"It's hard to imagine a scenario that would result in the things that need to be done getting done," said Columbia University professor Gerry Curtis.

Dumping unpopular leaders has become an annual ritual in Japan.

Kan, sworn in last June, is already Japan's fifth prime minister in as many years and the second since his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) swept to power for the first time in 2009, promising to change how the country is governed after more than half a century of almost unbroken rule by the Liberal Democrats.

"A no-confidence motion is the biggest weapon of an opposition party ... and we have a responsibility to submit one since it is such a problematic government," LDP president Sadakazu Tanigaki told a news conference. He stopped short of saying exactly when the motion would be submitted.

Already unpopular before a March 11 earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, Kan has been criticized for his handling of the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima nuclear plant, where three reactors damaged in the disaster suffered meltdown. His ratings are hovering below 30 percent.

TWO-FRONT BATTLE

Kan will be fighting on two fronts when he returns on Sunday from a trip to Europe.

The LDP and its erstwhile partner, the smaller New Komeito Party, are eager to return to power. Kan's rivals in his own party dislike his sometimes abrasive style and are irritated by his policy shift away from campaign pledges to spend more money on supporting households. They also fear Kan's poor ratings will scuttle their chances at the next election, due by 2013.

The LDP generally recognizes the need for social security and tax reforms, including a rise in the 5 percent sales tax, that Kan proposes.

"They agree on what they should do, but they disagree on who should do it," said Steven Reed, a political science professor at Chuo University in Tokyo.

Analysts and political insiders said it was still a big question whether the LDP could win over enough disaffected Democrats for the no-confidence motion to pass. About 75 out of more than 300 Democrats would have to defect to pass the motion.

Kan could call a lower house election if a no-confidence motion were to pass, but that would risk a backlash from voters who want politicians to concentrate on the nuclear crisis and on rebuilding northeast Japan, where the quake and tsunami left 25,000 dead or presumed dead and devastated the region. Tens of thousands of people are still living in evacuations centers.

Nor is it clear who would replace Kan if he were to quit.

Among the names floated are Tanigaki, a former finance minister who lacks an image as a strong leader, or a DPJ elder such as 79-year-old Kozo Watanabe, who might head a new coalition until a general election next year.

If Kan survives a no-confidence motion, his job could still be threatened if opposition parties -- who control parliament's upper house and can block bills -- refuse to back a bill to allow the government to issue bonds needed to fund 44 percent of a record $1 trillion budget for the year from April.

The government could probably avoid a shut-down even without approval by the end of June, but the resulting delay in spending would dampen recovery from March 11 disasters, estimated to have caused as much as $300 billion in damages.

Kan is also struggling to find ways to fund the rebuilding of the quake-hit areas, Japan's biggest reconstruction project since the end of World War Two, while keeping in check public debt that is already twice the size of its $5 trillion economy.

A second extra budget, is likely to be submitted to parliament around August and many experts say Japan's only option is to finance it with a combination of higher taxes and more borrowing.

(Additional reporting by Yoko Nishikawa; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Alex Richardson)


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Search for missing tornado victims enters fourth day (AFP)

JOPLIN, Missouri (AFP) – Rescuers and anguished families were still searching for hundreds of missing people on Thursday, four days after a tornado battered this US town, killing at least 125 people.

So far painstaking searches through the devastated homes of Joplin rescuers found no one in the rubble on Wednesday -- dead or alive.

"We're disappointed, but we're also relieved that we didn't find people in there," fire chief Mitch Randles said.

As of Wednesday, nearly 1,500 people were still reported missing. Officials expressed hope that many had simply failed to check in with friends or family while warning that the death toll was likely to rise.

In what is one of the worst tornado seasons on record after a series of twisters killed hundreds in southern US states last month, Sunday's twister in Joplin is now the worst single tornado to strike America in six decades.

The massive twister tore apart everything it touched along a path four miles (six kilometers) long and three quarters of a mile (over a kilometer) wide of this city of 50,000.

"It is a devastating scene," said Missouri public safety communications chief Mike O'Connell.

"I have seen a lot of tornado damage in the past, but never such a wide path, such a large path."

Heartbreaking stories were being replayed hourly on the local radio and on social networking sites as people searched for their loved ones, including panicked parents separated from their children.

The family of 16-month-old Skyular Logsdon launched an anxious search using Facebook for the baby boy ripped from his mother's arms by the powerful winds, and late Wednesday there were conflicting reports his body had been identified.

"No, he has not been found," his grandmother, Milissa Burns, posted sadly on the site Wednesday. "I'm following all leads both good and bad... I just pray we all can work together on this. God bless."

Teenager Lantz Hare, who was out driving with friends when the massive funnel cloud struck with winds of up to 200 miles (320 kilometers) an hour, was also missing.

"He was on the phone with another friend, we believe, when the tornado actually hit the car. His friend Ryan says he could literally hear the swoosh came through and the phone went dead," his mother Michelle told CNN.

The American Red Cross has set up a website for people to list the names of the missing, but they have had little success so far reuniting families.

"It's been very difficult. We'd like to see a much greater number of families reunited," said Bill Benson, who is handling the Red Cross's social media and online outreach.

"We have a constant influx of folks coming in desperate, asking can you help me -- we just don't know where to go."

Assistant shelter manager Amanda Marshall is among them -- her four-year-old niece and the girl's grandparents were nowhere to be found when her brother discovered the bodies of his wife and other daughter.

"I keep checking my cell phone -- I'm waiting for a text saying she's OK," Marshall told AFP.

Further complicating matters is the fact that officials have not released the names of the dead.

More than 8,000 structures in this town bordering the heartland states of Kansas and Oklahoma were damaged or destroyed when the twister came roaring through with just a 24-minute warning.

In yet another tragedy, more twisters hit Oklahoma late Tuesday, killing at least eight people.

Joplin avoided a second hit by tornado, but the violent storm system rattled already shaky nerves as residents were forced to seek shelter from strong winds and blinding rain.

US President Barack Obama, on a visit to London, again sent his condolences to the people of Missouri, ahead of a visit to the area on Sunday.

"We have been battered by some storms. Not just this week but over the last several months.

"The largest death toll and devastation we have ever seen from tornadoes in the United States of America," he said.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon announced plans for a community memorial service Sunday as he vowed to do everything possible to help residents recover and rebuild.

"We're going to battle together and come back as a stronger community," he told reporters.


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By the Numbers: 2011 tornado season (AP)

Figures about the tornado that ripped through Joplin, Mo., on Sunday and the 2011 tornado season. All statistics represent the official record of the National Weather Service, which covers 1950 to present day.

JOPLIN TORNADO

• People killed: 125.

• Survivors rescued: 9.

• Injured: More than 900.

• Buildings destroyed: An estimated 8,000.

• About the tornado: Deadliest single tornado since records began in 1950. Storm Prediction Center says unofficial records show last single tornado with greater death toll occurred in 1947. National Weather Service rated the storm an EF5, the highest rating based on inflicted damage. Winds exceeded 200 mph.

TORNADO COUNT

• Tornadoes to strike Joplin: 1.

• Tornado reports made so far in the U.S. in May: 187, through May 24.

• Average number of tornadoes in May during the past decade: 298.

• Record for tornadoes in May: 542, in 2003.

• Tornado reports made so far in 2011: 1,228, through May 24.

• Average number of tornadoes in a single year during the past decade: 1,274.

• Highest recorded number of tornadoes in a single year: 1,817, in 2004.

DEATH TOLL

• People killed in Joplin tornado: 125.

• People killed in 2011 prior to Joplin tornado: 365.

• People killed in 2011: 505, through morning of May 25.

• Highest recorded death toll in a single year: 519, in 1953.

• People killed in Oklahoma from storms this week: 9

• People killed in Kansas: 2

• People killed in Arkansas: 4

Source: Joplin City Manager Mark Rohr; National Weather Service; Storm Prediction Center preliminary tornado data; FEMA.


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AP Enterprise: Tornado victims often uninsured (AP)

By MIKE SCHNEIDER and HARRY R. WEBER, Associated Press Mike Schneider And Harry R. Weber, Associated Press – 1 hr 49 mins ago

ATLANTA – Many of the states hammered by what's already the deadliest year for tornadoes in more than half a century have among the nation's highest rates of homes without hazard insurance despite being among the most twister-prone, data analyzed by The Associated Press shows.

That means the regions that most need the insurance are often the exact places that don't have much of it. It also means many tornado victims may have a hard time getting compensated for their losses, putting more pressure on the federal government to help even though its assistance is limited by law.

With more than 450 deaths and billions of dollars in damage in the past month alone, regulators are calling for more education about the importance of homeowners insurance and further efforts to make it affordable and available to all. But whether to buy it is still considered a personal choice and there's no push to mandate it federally.

The fallout is on stark display in Mississippi and Arkansas, two of seven Southern states battered last month by twisters. Mississippi ranks second in the nation for the percentage of homes without insurance covering wind damage yet fourth on the list of states that have had the most tornadoes touch down in the past five years. Arkansas ranks fourth for uninsured homes and 10th for being tornado prone, according to the AP's analysis.

Missouri, site of Sunday's tornado outbreak with at least 125 dead, falls somewhere in the middle on hazard insurance despite being the fourth most tornado-prone state. Kansas and Oklahoma, the sites of deadly tornadoes Tuesday, also fall in the middle and rank No. 2 and No. 6 on the list of most tornado-prone states.

States with the highest rates of uninsured homeowners also tend to have a higher incidence of homes without mortgages, meaning owners don't have to answer to banks requiring coverage. The uninsured can turn to aid groups and the federal government for relief — but often not for full compensation.

Poverty and an abundance of older homes that can be difficult to insure contribute to high rates of no insurance. In tough economic times, the temptation to forgo insurance is real.

Tammy and Kevin Cudy of Joplin, Mo., dropped their homeowner's policy, and its $50-a-month premiums, last August after Kevin lost his construction job. They considered reinstating their policy within the past week but said they were unable to reach their insurance agent by telephone.

And then the deadliest single tornado in nearly six decades demolished their five-bedroom home Sunday.

"That's why I'm kicking myself right now," said Tammy Cudy, 47. "The fact that we were thinking about it, that we needed to work our budget around it, it just makes you kind of heart-sick at this point."

Many people don't qualify for insurance if their homes are in high-risk areas, or they have trouble affording a policy to cover wind damage because of high costs associated with home value, aging construction and building codes, Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Jay Bradford said.

"The loss ratios on those houses that are insured are generally pretty high," Bradford said. "They don't have central heat and air. They are older homes. Sometimes, the plumbing and wiring are not up to standard. The rates are higher, and the coverage is limited."

Bradford is among regulators calling for more education and strategies to make insurance more affordable. Yet he opposes a mandate, as do two lawmakers from tornado zones contacted by phone: Rep. Mike Ross, an Arkansas Democrat, and Rep. Alan Nunnelee, a Mississippi Republican.

Nancy and Homer Davis weren't protected for the worst.

Tight finances kept them from buying a policy on the 80-foot-by-14-foot trailer they purchased eight years ago for $10,000. Homer Davis is on disability and Nancy Davis works part-time at a Lowe's home improvement store. One of last month's twisters lifted their trailer off the ground near Pheba, Miss., smashed it against trees and disgorged their household belongings into a ditch.

"I'm trying to figure out, `Where does my money go?' He's on disability and I'm working part-time," said Davis, 51. "It's just trying to figure out what's the best way to spend your money. You say to yourself, `As soon as I'm ready, I'm going to get insurance on the house.'"

Nationally, roughly 4 percent of owner-occupied homes lack homeowners, or hazard, insurance, according to the latest industry estimates. But the numbers vary substantially by region.

The South has the highest rate of homes without hazard insurance, at 17.4 percent, according to the AP analysis. This is followed by the Northeast at 12.2 percent, the Midwest at 8.4 percent and the West at 3.3 percent.

The highest death toll from tornadoes in the past month was in Alabama, which is at the national average for homes without insurance and ranks third for frequency of tornadoes. North Dakota tops the uninsured list and ranks 16th on the tornado-prone list.

Louisiana, another state hit by the April 27 tornado outbreak in the South, ranks 11th in both categories.

The AP analyzed data compiled by the Insurance Information Institute and the U.S. Census Bureau. AP relied on 2008 figures because those were the most recent for which comparisons could be made, and it's unlikely the numbers would have fluctuated much in the past three years, said industry expert Robert P. Hartwig.

About 30 percent of owner-occupied homes in Arkansas and Mississippi lack hazard insurance policies, according to the AP analysis, which reviewed data from all 50 states except Florida, where data was incomplete. In Louisiana, about 17 percent are uninsured. The rate is roughly 10.5 percent in Missouri. Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee all are close to the national average of 4 percent.

Some of the states hit by last month's tornadoes have average insurance premiums well above the national average of $791 a year. Louisiana's average annual premium is $1,155 and Mississippi's is $980. Alabama's average premium is $845, as is Minnesota's. Arkansas' and Missouri's are $788, roughly at the national average.

By law, the Federal Emergency Management Agency can provide up to $30,300 in grants for home repairs, rental assistance and other disaster-related losses in presidentially declared disaster areas. But that may not cover the cost to rebuild. Insured homeowners can still qualify for FEMA aid, but the assistance is reduced by the amount of the insurance settlement.

Tom and Tammy Priola hope FEMA covers the cost of rebuilding a new house after they lost their 100-year-old home in suburban Birmingham to the tornadoes. Their house is valued at $73,000, more than double FEMA's limit. Inspectors had deemed it too old and risky for coverage so they never purchased homeowners' insurance.

"It's so hard to make plans that you can really follow right now," said Priola, an electrician. "We're in a daze kind of deal."

Homeowners also may be eligible for low-interest loans from the Small Business Administration. Unlike the FEMA program, the SBA money must be repaid, and if the loan is over a certain amount the agency will take a lien against the property until the money is repaid.

FEMA has already registered more than 100,000 individuals and families in the tornado-affected states for assistance and approved tens of millions of dollars for individual assistance to cover temporary housing, home repairs and other needs.

According to Census data, Mississippi and Arkansas have higher-than-usual rates of homes without mortgages — about 41 percent of owner-occupied homes in Arkansas and 43 percent in Mississippi. The national average is under a third of all owner-occupied homes. Missouri stands at about the national average. In many cases, homeowners have inherited their homes and don't need a mortgage which would require insurance, said Larry Cox, a University of Mississippi professor who heads the school's insurance and risk management program.

"It's come down from grandparents, great grandparents, and they never bothered to insure it," Cox said. He added, "I think the general public finds insurance complex, confusing, something they don't want to think about."

___

Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Pleasant Grove. Ala., and David A. Lieb in Jefferson City, Mo., contributed to this report.

___

Follow Mike Schneider, who reported from Orlando, Fla., at http://www.twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP. Follow Harry R. Weber at http://www.facebook.com/HarryRWeberAP.


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Joplin Tornado Videos: Five Looks at the Deadly Missouri Storm (ContributorNetwork)

JOPLIN, Mo. -- I drove from Branson, in southern Missouri, to Joplin to check on my sister-in-law and her family on Sunday. We arrived in Joplin around 8 p.m. to help my wife's family, who live south of town. Everyone in my family is OK after the devastating storm.

We saw the aftermath. But it was local media and storm chasers who captured the deadly tornado in action and on video. Here are some of the initial videos that show the massive tornado as it hit Joplin.

KSN -- Watch

Local station KSN was broadcasting live as the tornado sirens sounded and the storm hit. A camera mounted on the tower captured the scene from a bird's-eye view. Someone in their home recorded the event unfolding on television from their living room.

There are two things notable about the television station coverage. First, initially the weather man at the station said the flashes of light may have been caused by lightning. He quickly changed his tone as the camera picked up electrical transformers blowing out. Second, viewers could see the tornado increasing in size as the camera followed it. Everyone in the studio is heard saying "take cover right now!"

Unfortunately, the girl on the live broadcast didn't help. Toward the end of the video, she said "I don't think it's going to hit our station, but take cover anyways."

Storm Chasers -- Watch

This second video recounts the formation of the tornado as it started and is perhaps the best video of the massive funnel. The life of the tornado looks innocent enough as it is very skinny and appears to be out in the countryside away from houses. But then the tornado gets very wide and thick in what seems like an instant.

The tornado chasers also surveyed part of the damage immediately following the tornado traveling down one of the main streets of Joplin. It's interesting, in a frightening way, to compare this video on the ground to the one from the television tower in the air to see the tornado from both perspectives.

First Person Video: Taking Shelter -- Watch

One man captured five minutes of video from residents taking shelter at a local convenience store in the heart of the destruction zone. If you truly want to know what it's like to be terrified in a tornado, this video is the one to watch.

It's dark in the back of the convenience store. You can hear children whimpering and crying as their mom tries to comfort them. Then, after a minute, you can see lightning flashes from outside the glass window. The manager tells everyone to get down and low to the ground.

Suddenly, you hear wind picking up at about two minutes and 10 seconds into the video. Then the screaming and praying ensues. Less than a minute later, all that is heard is a massive roar of wind. At the very end, the video cuts to a scene that looks like part of the roof that had collapsed into the building.

Tornado Alley Video -- Watch

Storm chasers Jeff and Kathryn Piotrowski were taking video in Joplin as the tornado roared through town. The debris field in the middle of the tornado is fairly well defined and intense. All I could think about when I saw the wood and dust gathering in the tornado was that those were people's homes.

YouTube: RevolutionNo1 -- Watch

These people in a vehicle aired 12 minutes of tornado video on YouTube. Warning, there are some strong curse words used in the video. The footage starts on North Rangeline near the Northpark Mall and the vehicle proceeds to the south. The videographer is pointing the camera to the west -- the initial spot of the twister.

They pass the Toys "R" Us and proceed into the areas hardest hit by the storm before it passes. About four minutes into the video, the passenger seat person named Roger comments on the light not turning green at Rangeline and 20th. The driver suggests taking shelter in the Home Depot across the street.

Despite the fact that it's around 5:30 p.m. in the early evening and the sun should be shining brightly, the view to the west is pitch black as the twister advances. At the 5:40 mark of the video, the horizontal rain is upon the vehicle and one passenger says just floor it and get out of here. The engine revs up. At about seven minutes, they debate taking shelter or to get on Interstate 44 and outrun the tornado as hail pelts the car.

Just after nine minutes, the main voice comments there are 160 knots of shear two miles away. That translates into wind speeds of 184 mph. Just eight minutes beyond the time the driver was commenting on taking shelter at Home Depot, the building was destroyed. Roger's advice to get on the interstate may have saved their lives.

William Browning lives in Branson, Mo.


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No link between tornadoes and climate change: US (AFP)

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States is experiencing the deadliest year for tornadoes in nearly six decades, but top US weather experts said Monday there is no link between the violent twisters and climate change.

Instead, the reasons for the spiking death tolls are more likely due to the rise in the population density, the number of mobile homes and the chance paths taken by a series of tornadoes that have happened to target populated areas.

"This year is an extraordinary outlier," said Harold Brooks, research meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma.

"This is the deadliest year for tornadoes in the US since 1953," he said.

A massive tornado tore though the Missouri town of Joplin over the weekend, killing at least 116 people, less than a month a spate of the storms struck across seven states and killed 361 people in April.

According to Russell Schneider, director of NOAA's Storm Prediction Center, that puts 2012 on par with 1953, a "horrible tornado year," when 116 people were killed in a June 8 tornado in Flint, Michigan.

The same year, 114 people were killed in a Waco, Texas twister and 90 were killed by a tornado that tore through Worcester, Massachusetts. Modern tornado records began in 1950.

"I think we have to ask ourselves the tough questions now," said Schneider.

"Why is this happening? The complexity of our society, the density of our populations in traditional tornado-prone regions of the world, community and family preparedness? Our science and technology -- are we fully exploiting that to protect Americans?"

While plenty of questions are being posed, none seem to point at climate change as a driver, and the La Nina phenomenon's effect is minimal, said Brooks.

When scientists examine the most complete records available and adjust for changes in how tornadoes were reported over time, "we see no correlation between global or US national temperature and tornado occurrence," Brooks said.

Nor are the storms themselves getting larger than they used to be, even though it may seem so after learning of massive twisters like the one in Missouri that tore apart a four-mile (10 kilometer) long, three-quarter-mile deep stretch of land.

"Tornado deaths require two things. You have to have the tornado and you have to have people in the right or the wrong place," Brooks said.

"The biggest single demographic change that probably affects things is that the fraction of mobile homes in the United States has increased over the years," he said.

More than seven percent of all 311 million Americans (about 20 million) live in mobile homes, US Census data show. And more than half of all mobile homes are in the US South which is among the regions most prone to tornado strikes.

Anything that can be tossed into the air, like cars and mobile homes, can prove deadly in a tornado and people are urged to take shelter underground if possible. Many mobile home parks, however, have no such shelters.

Twisters are formed when atmospheric conditions come together in a certain way. At low levels, the atmosphere is warm and moist, coupled with cold dry air above.

Winds must be increasing in speed from the Earth's surface up to elevations of about 20,000 feet, with directional changes, known as wind shear, so that the southerly wind blows near the surface and gains speed at higher altitude.

"In April, essentially we were stuck in a pattern where that was the way things were for a couple of weeks, and that pattern didn't move so we had repeated episodes that were favorable for producing significant tornadoes," Brooks explained.

The weather phenomenon known as La Nina, which produces cooler than normal temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, may have had a "relatively small impact" on producing that pattern, but that is not the full picture, he said.

"It's an area of research to try to identify why the pattern was so favorable and why it was favorable for so long."

The overall tornado record does not show a steadily increasing trend toward bigger, deadlier storms, he said.

For instance, "2009 was a really low year for tornadoes. Some recent years have been big, some recent years have been small," he said.

Since modern records on tornadoes began in 1950, the deadliest outbreak was on April 3, 1974. The "Super Outbreak" claimed 310 lives when 148 tornadoes over a 24-hour period swept across 13 states.

Prior to that, the single deadliest tornado in US history was in 1925, described in early accounts as killing 695 people when it tore through Missouri, southern Illinois and southwestern Indiana.


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