Missouri Tornado: Deadliest Tornado since 1950

Missouri Tornado: Deadliest Tornado since 1950

According to National Weather Service, the deadliest twister in the past 60 years was the tornado that killed 117 people in Missouri.

Tuesday morning, Sam Murphey, Gov. Jay Nixon’s spokesman said that the amount of deaths in Joplin had risen to 117.

In the past six years, the single deadliest tornado on record with the National Weather Service was a twister that killed 116 people in Flint, Mich., in 1953.

More deaths have resulted from outbreaks of multiple tornadoes.

A number of twisters crashed across six Southern states which killed 314 people. That was the single deadliest day for tornadoes since National Weather Service began keeping such records in 1950. The agency has done research that shows deadlier outbreaks before 1950. It says the single deadliest day that it is aware of was March 18, 1925, when tornadoes killed 747 people.

The killer tornado that happened Sunday ripped the heart of Joplin slamming straight into St. John’s Regional Medical Center. There were 5 patients dead and a hospital visitor was also killed. The tornado destroyed possibly "thousands" of homes, Fire Chief Mitch Randles told AP. It levelled hundreds of businesses, including massive ones such as Home Depot and Walmart.

President Barack Obama, speaking from London, said he would travel to Missouri on Sunday to meet with people whose lives have been turned upside down by the twister. He promised to make all federal resources available for efforts to recover and rebuild. "The American people are by your side," Obama said. "We're going to stay there until every home is repaired, until every neighborhood is rebuilt, until every business is back on its feet."

Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Craig Fugate, told NBC’s Today show that Obama declared a disaster in the area, which means residents are allowed for his agency’s assistance. "We're here for the long haul, not just for the response," Fugate said.

The danger was not yet over. Fires from gas leaks burned across city. . The smell of ammonia and propane filled the air in some damaged areas. And the forecast looked grim.

The tornado that devastated the South this April unspooled over a three-day period starting in the Plains. The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said a repeat could be setting up with a possible large tornado outbreak in the Midwest on Tuesday and a bad weather potentially reaching the East Coast by Friday.

"This is a very serious situation brewing," center director Russell Schneider said.

The center said ,early Tuesday, that there was a moderate risk of severe weather in Central and Southeast Kansas and Southwester Missouri, which could include Joplin .The warning was raised for severe weather to high risk indicating that tornadoes will hit in Central Oklahoma, Southern Kansas and North Texas.

The Storm Prediction Center also issued a high-risk warning before the deadly outbreak in the South in April.

Posted by M.Ferrer on Wednesday May 25 2011, 12:41 AM EDT. Ref: AP. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0