[WildRose]

Looks really bad, Pops. Sounds like a lot of fatalities and damage to hospital, high school, Walmart, lots of homes and businesses.
My condolences to all who have lost loved ones.

[Pops]

24 dead according to EMS - I've heard higher via scanner

A good portion of commercial Joplin is flattened, people trapped in the Home Depot, every window blown out of one hospital and dozens of commercial stores are gone. Several apartment buildings are flattened. People are being evaced from several areas because of gas leaks.

Only two hospitals in town and the bigger is kaput, a separate triage center is set up at a community center, medically trained volunteers requested. Cell service is down, power is out in a pretty wide area.


The twister moved across a long path - maybe 30 miles although I don't know how much of the time it was on the ground, and it was very slow, 20-25 mph over or near several small towns besides Joplin, no reports from them yet. Debris is scattered dozens of miles from the storm track.


We're probably 10 miles northeast of the path and I could hear it on and off for maybe an hour, a rumble like distant thunder but constant, uninterrupted.


This is the hospital:




I don't know how the times gets the great shot every time...

NYT

[DomusAlbion]

This is horrible, Pops. The latest news is that at least 89 are dead.

I hope you have a storm shelter at your place or you might end up in the Land of Oz.

[dolanbaker]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13497489

At least 89 people have been killed after a tornado tore through the city of Joplin in the US state of Missouri, officials have said.

The tornado cut a path nearly six miles (10km) long through the city centre, destroying businesses and homes.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has declared a state of emergency and warned more storms are on the way.

Last month, tornadoes and storms killed at least 350 people in Alabama and six other southern states.

John Miller, a freelance photographer for the Springfield News-Leader newspaper, described widespread damage in Joplin.

[Sixstrings]

Per CNN, 89 dead expected to rise.




So is this due to climate change? Is it statistically anomalous yet? Does seem strange,so many deaths this season.

[Pretorian]

That's what happens when you build houses made out of cardboard and 2x4s

[Ferretlover]

Glad you and yours are okay, Pops!! (You KNOW how I worry!!)

[Sixstrings]

First Person video of Joplin MO tornado:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQnvxJZucds&feature=player_embedded#at=257

The audio is unreal..

Pops just noticed you said you live in the area.. condolences. Obviously you're extremely lucky to have dodged this.

[ritter]

That's what happens when you build houses made out of cardboard and 2x4s

That hospital shown above is much more substantial.

That damage seems just unreal. Take care, Pops.

[Pops]

Yea, it's pretty crazy, we have lots of small and medium sized tornados but this one was pretty big, it spun up fast and made a quick southward turn right into the middle of town. Some people interviewed say "we herd the sirens but we hear them all the time..." There was probably 15-20 minutes warning and we'd been under a watch all day - and it felt stormy, but still, people get complacent.

We're about 35 miles east of Joplin and "it seems" many storms off the plains and out of OK kinda peter out between the border and here - knock on wood! This one tracked ExSE which is unusual in itself but that took it south of us by 8 or 10 miles.

[dohboi]

That looks pretty awful. People used to think that tornadoes were less likely to go through cities. Here we just had our second tornado hit inside city limits in the last three years. Nothing like Joplin, but it gave us a bit of a fright here--at least one dead so far.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/23/deadly-tornado-hits-minneapolis/

[vision-master]

The 'Hood' just went down in North Mpls.........

Did a tour on the scooter today.

I'm sure the all liquor stores were robbed last night.

A twister hit for 25 mins yesterday.

Power is out for miles and miles. Trees down everywhere, ppl hanging out all over the place.

Glad I live on the 'other side' of the tracks (only about 3 miles away).

[jedrider]

Yes, very little mention of AGW as the cause of such extreme outbreaks of tornados. Just like hurricanes require a complex set of conditions to develop, tornadoes do as well.

However, the mixture of rapidly melting ice in the North and a warming earth-water-atmosphere system as a whole, seem to be supplying the right mixture of conditions for this to occur.

I wonder why so many city environments are being hammered by tornadoes as we are use to seeing small towns and rural communities as the typical victims of this phenomena?? Is it that tornadoes do not form well in built up environments, unless they are mega-tornadoes?? Just speculating having no particular background of expertise in this.

[Serial_Worrier]

Rapture, end times?

[dolanbaker]

I wonder why so many city environments are being hammered by tornadoes as we are use to seeing small towns and rural communities as the typical victims of this phenomena?? Is it that tornadoes do not form well in built up environments, unless they are mega-tornadoes?? Just speculating having no particular background of expertise in this.

Might just be something to do with the fact that the land is in general mostly rural, so most tornados are going to be in rural areas.

[SpockLives]

The severity and increase in tornado activity is to be expected. The news blackout of the cause, AGW, isn't.

Climate change does not cause tornadoes, local weather conditions do. Climate change might mean there are more of them (or less, depending on the direction of the change I suppose) or in different places, but the dynamics of their creation is local in nature.

Certainly "Tornado Alley" earned its name long before the modern climate change debate, and even before the coming ice age debate of the 70's.

[Pops]

Still 1,500 people missing...

Looting... Curfews... Nat Guard MPs... etc...

Couple LEOs hit by lightening last night...

More severe weather on the way.

[Lore]

Still 1,500 people missing...

Looting... Curfews... Nat Guard MPs... etc...

Couple LEOs hit by lightening last night...

More severe weather on the way.

I think this was just on the SyFy channel!

One thing I have no respect for and that's looters. Some culture we have in this country, unlike that of the Japanese.

[AdTheNad]

One thing I have no respect for and that's looters.

Does that include people who loot the world's natural resources? Actually this thread probably isn't the right place for this comment, but it might make some people think.