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Death toll rises to 118 as Missouri braces for more bad weather

25 May 2011 04:14 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The death toll from the tornado that burst through Joplin, Missouri, rose to 118 on Tuesday as rescue workers dodged storms, hail and lightning, APA reports quoting Earth Times.

Emergency workers were also asking for more dogs trained to find cadavers, indicating that more dead were expected.

Since the 1.6-km-wide twister ravaged Joplin Sunday afternoon, a total of 17 people have been rescued from the wreckage, according to media reports. The death toll made it one of the 10 deadliest tornadoes in US history.

Two police offices were struck by lightning Monday night in Joplin, when rescue efforts were called off, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon said in broadcast remarks. But workers resumed work later Monday evening as the weather lifted, officials said.

One of those hit by lightning was still in intensive care, reports said.

Another bout of bad weather, hail and more tornadoes was ripping across Oklahoma and northern Texas Tuesday afternoon and could also touch Joplin, the national weather service’s Storm Prediction Center said.

Missouri’s State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) put the death toll at 118 as of 10 am Tuesday. Workers had worked through about half of the wreckage by then.

The New York Times quoted a Joplin firefighter captain as saying that 1,500 of the town’s 50,000 residents were still unaccounted for. But the newspaper and other media noted the figure could be so high due to communications problems that followed the storm, which knocked down 17 cell phone towers.

Missouri’s SEMA put out a call for more dogs trained to find cadavers on its website. Governor Nixon said the continuing bad weather made it difficult for some of the sniffer dogs.

"It’s very difficult for them to work in the rain," he said.

An estimated 2,000 structures were destroyed or damaged by the tornado, including a hospital, nursing home and high school.

Families continued to hunt for loved ones, including Tammy Niederhelman, who was searching for her 12-year-old blue-eyed, blond son, Zach Williams, according to the Springfield News-Leader newspaper.

"I just want to hold him," Niederhelman was quoted as saying. "Even if he’s gone I want to hold him."

US President Barack Obama plans to visit Joplin on Sunday, on his return from his current European tour.

"The devastation is comparable and may end up exceeding some of the devastation that we saw in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, just a few weeks ago," Obama said in a statement issued from Britain.

The devastation in Joplin marks the most recent in a series of US weather-triggered disasters that included the death of nearly 300 people in April across six southern states from an unprecedented number of tornadoes.

With Sunday’s death toll included, the total for the year was headed to 500 deaths, the highest such a toll has ever reached so early in the year, according to Russell Schneider, director of the Storm Prediction Center.