Monday, May 12, 2008

Times offers coverage of Missouri tornado


The tornado that ripped through southwest Missouri Saturday is the subject of an article in today's New York Times, which was accompanied by a photo by Roger Nomer of the Joplin Globe:

In Missouri, tornadoes tore through small towns in the southwestern section of the state, near the border with Oklahoma, just after 6:30 p.m. Saturday, overturning cars and smashing buildings.

The superintendent of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, James F. Keathley, said the tornadoes killed at least 15 people and injured hundreds. A family was killed when its vehicle was hit by a tornado, Superintendent Keathley said.

Capt. Tim Hull of the Highway Patrol said 12 of the deaths occurred in Newton County. “It’s a rural area,” Captain Hull said. “There are some small towns that were hit hard.”

The storm inflicted the most damage in Racine, a town about 170 miles south of Kansas City.

Gov. Matt Blunt of Missouri said in an interview on CNN on Sunday afternoon that about 9,000 residents were without power and could remain so for three to five days. He said emergency crews were “ensuring that we have found any potential survivors or anyone unaccounted for.”

The governor said at least 85 people had been injured in the storm. “Some of those injuries are fairly severe,” he said.

On Sunday morning about 10 miles north of Seneca, Mo., Jane Lant was sorting through the debris of her bridal shop, The Associated Press reported. A body wrapped in a blue tarp lay next to the shop. Her husband’s feed store and a home across the road were also destroyed.

Ms. Lant said she was relieved that the store had closed an hour before the tornado hit.


(The Joplin Globe photo by Roger Nomer of damage in Seneca accompanied the New York Times' report on the Missouri tornado.)
“We would have had people in here at 6 when it hit,” she said.

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