A line of severe storms crosses the Mississippi River in Memphis, Tenn., passing by the Memphis Pyramid on Wednesday. The dark formation was reported a few minutes earlier as a tornado in West Memphis, Ark.
A line of severe storms crosses the Mississippi River in Memphis, Tenn., passing by the Memphis Pyramid on Wednesday. The dark formation was reported a few minutes earlier as a tornado in West Memphis, Ark.
Authorities and relatives of missing family members in Joplin, Mo., were still hopeful Thursday of finding survivors amid the rubble left from a massive tornado that struck five days ago.
Meanwhile, in the nation's storm-weary midsection, many people were counting themselves fortunate after powerful storms swept through the region Wednesday for the third time in four days, but apparently claimed no lives.
Joplin Fire Chief Mitch Randles said he still thought it was possible to pull survivors out of the wreckage left from Sunday's powerful tornado, the deadliest to hit the U.S. in nearly 60 years. At least 125 people are now listed as dead, with hundreds injured and hundreds more unaccounted for.
"I am hopeful," Randles said. "We've had stories from earthquakes and tsunamis and other disasters of people being found two or three weeks later, and we are hopeful we'll have a story like that to tell."
Mike Hare has scoured the ravaged Joplin neighborhood where his 16-year-old son Lantz last was seen. He's called hospitals from Dallas to Kansas City.
"We know he's hurt somewhere," Hare said. "We just can't sit and keep calling. You've got to be moving."
Hare is among an increasingly desperate group of people in Joplin pleading for help in tracking down one of the dwindling number of people still missing in the wake of Sunday's storm. They're scrawling signs in wreckage, calling in by the hundreds to local radio stations and posting on the Internet.
Randles and others leading the search effort say it's impossible to know exactly how many people are truly missing, since many may have simply left the area without getting in touch with their families. They believe most will be OK. Officials planned to release a list Thursday morning of people still considered missing.
But there was little let-up in the severe weather that has pounded the region for days.
The National Weather Service issued tornado watches and a series of warnings in a dozen states on Wednesday, stretching from Texas though the Mississippi River valley to Ohio. By Thursday morning, tornado watches were in effect in most of Mississippi, northwestern Alabama and central Kentucky.
"This is just a wild ride," said Beverly Poole, chief meteorologist at the National Weather Service's office in Paducah, Ky.
In Missouri, a tornado struck the west-central town of Sedalia, destroying dozens of mobile homes and ripping through six blocks of businesses. About 20 people suffered minor injuries. Officials in Sedalia ended the school year several days early because of damage to buses.
Central Indiana was also assessing damage after a powerful storm system brought severe thunderstorms and tornadoes overnight. At least a dozen people were hospitalized and homes were swept off their foundations.
In Bedford, resident Vicki Lee watched as the tornado slammed into her neighbor's house.
"It was scary and you just have a lot of emotions going on, praying that everybody is okay and safe and hoping that no lives have been lost in it," she told NPR.
"We're very fortunate," Lawrence County Sheriff Sam Craig told the AP.
Strong winds, rain and at least four possible tornadoes knocked down power lines and damaged at least one home and a number of farm buildings Wednesday across central and eastern Illinois.
"Mostly it was shingles off roofs and garages," said Illinois Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Patti Thompson.
Wednesday's storms followed a deadly outbreak Tuesday in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas that killed at least 15 people.
NPR's Sonari Glinton in Joplin, Marshall Griffon from St. Louis Public Radio, Sara Wittmeyer of member station WFIU in Bloomington, IN and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/05/26/136670094/violent-storms-pound-several-central-states?ft=1&f=1003
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