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Tornado death toll climbs to 14 in Missouri
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By ROXANA HEGEMAN
Associated Press Writer
SENECA, Mo. (AP) - Crews continued searching for survivors and culling through the wreckage of demolished homes Sunday after a killer tornado swept through this sparsely populated countryside, killing 14 people.
Search crews with dogs combed debris-strewn fields, while a helicopter circled over the 12-mile-long path of the tornado and residents picked through the mounds of debris of homes and businesses. Between 8,000 and 9,000 people were reported without power, which is expected to take at least a week to restore.
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 home. A woman who had apparently sought shelter in the car died there, she said.
“That is what is tearing me up,” Roberts said, adding she had warned the woman - who had stopped to change a tire - about the nearby tornado.
Roberts said she left her rental house just six minutes before the tornado hit about 6 p.m. Saturday, taking her 13-year-old grandson with her because he is afraid of tornados. A storm spotter stopped to warn her of the tornado as she was leaving.
“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 started in Oklahoma, where it killed seven people before moving into southwest Missouri. On Sunday, storms in Georgia killed at least two people there.
President Bush has talked with Gov. Matt Blunt to express his condolences for the lives lost and to discuss the state's needs for recovery, said White House spokesman Blair Jones.
“The federal government will be moving hard to help,” President Bush said.
Susie Stonner, spokeswoman for the State Emergency Management Agency, said one person was killed in Jasper County, one was killed in Barry County, and 12 were reported killed in Newton County near the border with Oklahoma, where seven people died.
“We are finding more unfortunately,” Stonner said. “There may be one or two more.”
Stonner said it was unclear how many homes were damaged or destroyed. But she said Newton County officials had initial estimates of 50 homes damaged or destroyed there.
Nineteen people were hospitalized in Newton County, which includes Seneca, said Keith Stammer, acting spokesman the county emergency operations. He did not know the extent of their injuries.
The tornado that swept through the area was approximately 300 yards wide and stayed mostly on the ground for about 12 miles. It hit the rural area about eight miles north of Seneca and went east, said Keith Stammer, director of emergency management in Jasper County. The tornado stayed on the ground about 15 minutes.
Next door to Roberts, Jane Lant climbed over the 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 on the highway in front of her store, she said. Her neighbor, an insurance agent, had just come back from Oklahoma after checking on damage there when his son drove into their driveway to tell him that his mother, sister, brother-in-law, nephew and a daughter-in-law's grandfather had been killed.
Hours later Lant had recovered one wedding dress along with boxes of tuxedo shoes.
“This is just surreal,” she said.
Next door, her husband's feed store also lay in shambles. But one bright moment came Sunday when rescuers heard chirping from underneath the mound and found a half dozen baby chicks. They had rescued about 100 the night earlier.
When a Missouri Highway patrolman came over to offer the family help, Bill Lant pointed to the intact glass coffee pot amid all the destruction and vowed he would rebuild the feed store.
Across the street at the home of Wayne Litherland, family and friends were busy carting furniture and other belongings out of the storm-damaged home and into a large trailer. Their roof was blown off. A car in their driveway was thrown 140 feet away.
“We ran to the store to get Mother's Day cards,” he said. “We came home and this is what we found.”
It took them a while to find the dog they had left in the house.
“Trucks are just trucks, cars are just cars, clothes are just clothes,” Litherland said. “There are people who lost loved ones.”
Search crews with dogs combed debris-strewn fields, while a helicopter circled over the 12-mile-long path of the tornado and residents picked through the mounds of debris of homes and businesses. Between 8,000 and 9,000 people were reported without power, which is expected to take at least a week to restore.
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 home. A woman who had apparently sought shelter in the car died there, she said.
“That is what is tearing me up,” Roberts said, adding she had warned the woman - who had stopped to change a tire - about the nearby tornado.
Roberts said she left her rental house just six minutes before the tornado hit about 6 p.m. Saturday, taking her 13-year-old grandson with her because he is afraid of tornados. A storm spotter stopped to warn her of the tornado as she was leaving.
“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 started in Oklahoma, where it killed seven people before moving into southwest Missouri. On Sunday, storms in Georgia killed at least two people there.
President Bush has talked with Gov. Matt Blunt to express his condolences for the lives lost and to discuss the state's needs for recovery, said White House spokesman Blair Jones.
“The federal government will be moving hard to help,” President Bush said.
Susie Stonner, spokeswoman for the State Emergency Management Agency, said one person was killed in Jasper County, one was killed in Barry County, and 12 were reported killed in Newton County near the border with Oklahoma, where seven people died.
“We are finding more unfortunately,” Stonner said. “There may be one or two more.”
Stonner said it was unclear how many homes were damaged or destroyed. But she said Newton County officials had initial estimates of 50 homes damaged or destroyed there.
Nineteen people were hospitalized in Newton County, which includes Seneca, said Keith Stammer, acting spokesman the county emergency operations. He did not know the extent of their injuries.
The tornado that swept through the area was approximately 300 yards wide and stayed mostly on the ground for about 12 miles. It hit the rural area about eight miles north of Seneca and went east, said Keith Stammer, director of emergency management in Jasper County. The tornado stayed on the ground about 15 minutes.
Next door to Roberts, Jane Lant climbed over the 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 on the highway in front of her store, she said. Her neighbor, an insurance agent, had just come back from Oklahoma after checking on damage there when his son drove into their driveway to tell him that his mother, sister, brother-in-law, nephew and a daughter-in-law's grandfather had been killed.
Hours later Lant had recovered one wedding dress along with boxes of tuxedo shoes.
“This is just surreal,” she said.
Next door, her husband's feed store also lay in shambles. But one bright moment came Sunday when rescuers heard chirping from underneath the mound and found a half dozen baby chicks. They had rescued about 100 the night earlier.
When a Missouri Highway patrolman came over to offer the family help, Bill Lant pointed to the intact glass coffee pot amid all the destruction and vowed he would rebuild the feed store.
Across the street at the home of Wayne Litherland, family and friends were busy carting furniture and other belongings out of the storm-damaged home and into a large trailer. Their roof was blown off. A car in their driveway was thrown 140 feet away.
“We ran to the store to get Mother's Day cards,” he said. “We came home and this is what we found.”
It took them a while to find the dog they had left in the house.
“Trucks are just trucks, cars are just cars, clothes are just clothes,” Litherland said. “There are people who lost loved ones.”
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