|
|
11-MAY-2008: Firefighters search an overturned car in Seneca, Mo.
following a tornado Saturday May 10, 2008. (AP Photo/The Joplin
Globe, Roger Nomer) [Photo copyright 2008 by AP]
|
SENECA, Mo. - Search crews combed debris-strewn fields for possible tornado victims Sunday as residents picked through the remains of homes demolished by storms that smashed through the Plains and South, killing at least 21 people in three states.HOT TRAVEL DEALS At least 14 people died in the sparsely populated countryside of southwestern Missouri, and searchers feared more bodies would be found. At least six people were killed in the fading mining town of Picher, Okla., and at least one person died in storms in Georgia. Susan Roberts, 61, stared at the smashed remains of her classic 1985 Cadillac sitting on her living room floor - the only thing left of her Seneca home. A woman who had apparently sought shelter in the car died there, she said. "That is what is tearing me up", Roberts said. She had warned the woman - who stopped to change a tire as Roberts and her 13-year-old grandson drove away from the rental house - to escape. The tornado hit just minutes later. "I'm from Kansas. I grew up watching storms", she said as she walked through the debris. "If I didn't have my grandson with me, I probably wouldn't have left." The same storm system earlier hit Oklahoma, where at least six people died and 150 people were injured in Picher. Officials there wavered on the number of dead, with the state highway patrol saying six and the state emergency management department saying seven. The town, once a bustling mining center of 20,000 that dwindled to about 800 people as families fled lead pollution there, was a surreal scene of overturned cars, smashed homes and mattresses, and twisted metal high stuck in the canopy of trees. "I swear I could see cars floating", said Herman Hernandez, 68. "And there was a roar, louder and louder." Ed Keheley was headed to town to help out Saturday night when he heard a woman screaming. He looked over to see her hand reaching out of debris. "She was sitting in the bathtub, she had curlers in her hair and she wanted out of there", said Keheley, who along with several others pulled her out. The area is part of a Superfund site, and residents have been asked to take part in state and federal buyouts in recent years. "From what I've been able to determine, that wouldn't have any bearing on whether a disaster declaration would come forth", said Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman Earl Armstrong. As the system moved east on Sunday, storms in Georgia killed at least one person in Dublin, about 120 miles southeast of Atlanta, authorities said. Weather officials had not yet confirmed whether the storms produced any tornadoes there. The body was found in the rubble of a mobile home, said Bryan Rogers, the Laurens County administrator. A second person found in the home, who state and local authorities initially reported had died, was hospitalized in critical condition, said Lisa Janak of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency. The small town of Kite was destroyed by the storm, said Caroline Pope, a spokeswoman for the Johnson County Sheriff's Department. Close to 1,000 people live in the community, she said. "From what they're telling me, it's gone", she said from the dispatch center in the jail, which was operating on a generator because the power was out. President Bush has talked with governors to express his condolences for the lives lost and to discuss the state's needs for recovery, according to the White House. "The federal government will be moving hard to help", Bush said. In Missouri, the tornado hit the rural area about eight miles north of Seneca and continued east, said Keith Stammer, director of emergency management in Jasper County. Next door to Roberts, Jane Lant climbed over splintered wood to go through the mud-caked remains of her bridal shop. "I just feel so awful, going through this rubble when they are out looking for bodies", she said as she motioned to the search dogs wandering the field behind her. An unidentified body lay under a blue tarp nearby. Among the dead were five family members of her neighbor who had been going to a wedding when the tornado caught their vehicle in front of her store, she said. Next door, her husband's feed store also lay in shambles. But one bright moment came Sunday when rescuers heard chirping from the mound and found a half-dozen chicks. They had rescued about 100 the night before. Susie Stonner, spokeswoman for the state Emergency Management Agency, said it was unclear how many homes had been damaged. But she said officials in Newton County, which includes Seneca, had initial estimates of 50 homes damaged or destroyed there. Nineteen people were hospitalized in Newton County, said Keith Stammer, acting spokesman the county emergency operations. He did not know the extent of their injuries. In storm-weary Arkansas, a tornado caused "substantial structural damage" in Stuttgart, but no one was seriously injured, said Weather Service meteorologist Joe Goudsward. Tornadoes killed 13 people in Arkansas on Feb. 5, and another seven were killed in an outbreak May 2. In between was freezing weather, persistent rain and river flooding that damaged homes and has slowed farmers in their planting. Gov. Mike Beebe planned to tour storm damage in Stuttgart on Monday. "In this seemingly endless season of severe weather, another Arkansas community now faces the challenge of rebuilding, and others are again picking up after damaging storms", Beebe said in a statement Sunday. "It appears everyone in Arkansas survived this latest outbreak, and for that we are grateful. Our thoughts and prayers go out to our sister states that saw a much steeper toll of human life from Saturday's tornadoes." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Associated Press writers Murray Evans in Picher, Roxana Hegeman in Seneca, Mo., Dorie Turner in Atlanta, and Chuck Bartels in Little Rock, Ark., contributed to this report.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
|
11-MAY-2008: An unidentified woman contemplates the damage from a
tornado that ripped through the city of Picher, Oklahoma May 10,
2008. At least six people were killed as the tornado flattened the
northeastern Oklahoma town of Picher before the funnel struck about
15 miles away near Seneca, Mo., and killed at least three,
authorities said. The tornado in Picher _ a depressed and
pollution-scarred mining town that many residents had already fled _
caused major damage in a 20-block area, Emergency Management
spokeswoman Michelann Ooten said. (AP Photo/COURTESY SHEILAH MILLER
[Photo copyright 2008 by AP]
|
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Related News Topics:
News of Georgia
News of Oklahoma
Top U.S. news
Photos from the general news
|
