116 feared dead as tornado hits Missouri

A hospital was wrecked and entire districts of Joplin, a town of 50,000 inhabitants, were reduced to a forest of splintered tree trunks.

Authorities last night warned that the death toll could climb as rescuers continued their work .

Their task was likely to be made more difficult as a fresh storm moved into the area.

It was not expected to produce new tornados, but lightning, high winds and heavy rains are likely to hamper an already difficult door-to-door search.

City manager Mark Rohr announced the number of known dead outside the wreckage of the hospital that took a direct hit from Sunday's storm.

Mr Rohr said the twister cut a path nearly six miles long and more than a half-mile wide through the centre of town, adding that tornado sirens gave residents about a 20-minute warning. Much of the city's south side was levelled, with churches, schools, businesses and homes reduced to ruins.

Fire chief Mitch Randles estimated that up to 30 per cent of the city was damaged, and said his own home was among the buildings destroyed.

"It cut the city in half," he said.

An unknown number of people were injured in the storm, and officials said patients were scattered to any nearby hospitals that could take them.

Authorities conducted a door-to-door search of the damaged area, moving gingerly around downed power lines, jagged debris and a series of gas leaks that caused fires around the city overnight.

"We will recover and come back stronger than we are today," Mr Rohr said defiantly of his city's future.

Residents said the scale of the damage was breathtaking.

"You see pictures of World War Two, the devastation and all that with the bombing. That's really what it looked like," said Kerry Sachetta, the head of flattened Joplin High School.

"I couldn't even make out the side of the building. It was total devastation in my view. I just couldn't believe what I saw."

The Joplin twister was one of 68 reported tornadoes across seven Midwest states over the weekend, from Oklahoma to Wisconsin.

At least one person was killed in Minneapolis. But the devastation in Missouri was the worst of the day, eerily reminiscent the tornadoes that killed more than 300 people across the US South last month.

The Joplin storm hit a hospital packed with patients and a commercial area. An estimated 2,000 buildings were damaged.

Among the worst-hit locations in Joplin was St John's Regional Medical Centre. The staff had just a few moments' notice to hustle patients into hallways before the storm struck the nine-storey building, blowing out hundreds of windows and leaving the facility useless.

In the car park a helicopter lay crushed on its side, its rotors torn apart and windows smashed, while nearby, a pile of cars lay crumpled into a single mass of twisted metal.

Matt Sheffer made it through wreckage and closed streets to his dental office across from the hospital. Rubble littered a flattened plot where a pharmacy, service station and offices once stood.

"My office is totally gone. Probably for two to three blocks, it's just levelled he said. "The building that my office was in was not flimsy. It was 30 years old and two layers of brick. It was very sturdy and well built."Michael Spencer, a national Red Cross spokesman who also assisted in the aftermath of a tornado that devastated nearby Pierce City in 2003, was stunned.

"I've been to about 75 disasters, and I've never seen anything quite like this before," he said. "You don't typically see metal structures and metal frames torn apart, and that's what you see here."

Triage centres and shelters set-up around the city quickly filled to capacity.

At Memorial Hall, a entertainment venue, nurses and other emergency workers from across the region were treating critically injured patients.

At another makeshift unit at a Lowe's home improvement store, wooden planks served as beds. Outside, ambulances and fire engines waited for calls.

Winds from the storm carried debris up to 60 miles away, with medical records, X-rays, insulation and other items among them.

Governor Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency was working with state and local agencies. A series of gas leaks caused fires around the city, and Mr Nixon said some were still burning last night.

He said he feared the death toll would rise but also expected survivors to be found in the rubble.

"I don't think we're done counting," Mr Nixon said. "I still believe that because of the size of the debris and the number of people involved that there are lives to be saved."

Meanwhile a helplessness settled over residents, many of whom could only wander the wreckage disoriented and wondering about the fate of loved ones.

Justin Gibson, 30, huddled with three relatives outside the tangled debris of what remained of a DIY store.

He pointed to a black pickup that had been tossed into the ruins and said it belonged to his room-mate's brother. "He was last seen here with his two little girls," aged four and five.

"We've been trying to get a hold of him since the tornado happened," he said.

After daybreak, survivors picked through the rubble of their homes, salvaging clothes, furniture, family photos and financial records, and the air was pungent with the smell of gas and smoking embers.

Some neighbourhoods were completely flattened and the leaves stripped from trees, giving the landscape an apocalyptic aura. In others where structures still stood, families found their belongings all jumbled, as if someone had picked up their homes and shaken them.

Kelley Fritz, 45, of Joplin, rummaged through the remains of a storage building with her husband, Jimmy. They quickly realized they would never find the belongings they stored there. They had lost much of what was in their home after the tornado ripped away the roof. Their sons, ages 20 and 17, both Eagle Scouts, went outside after the storm. "My sons had deceased children in their arms when they came back," Ms Fritz said. "My husband and I went out and saw two or three dead bodies on the ground."

Ms Fritz said she was surprised she survived. "You could just feel the air pull up and it was so painful. I didn't think we were going to make it, it happened so fast."

Sirens gave residents about a 20-minute warning before the tornado touched down on the city's west side, Mr Rohr said.

Travel through and around Joplin was difficult, with Interstate 44 shut down and other streets clogged with emergency vehicles, debris and fallen trees.

Emergency management officials rushed heavy equipment to Joplin to clear the way for search and recovery operations.

n President Barack Obama, who is on a state visit to Ireland, sent his "deepest condolences to those affected by the storms,

He said in statement: "Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to the families of all those who lost their lives in the tornadoes and severe weather that struck Joplin, Missouri, as well as communities across the Midwest today. We commend the heroic efforts by those who have responded and who are working to help their friends and neighbours at this very difficult time."