Missouri Tornado Kills At Least 89

The Kansas City Star that the Joplin tornado death toll jumps to 89

JOPLIN, Mo. — A massive tornado blasted its way across southwestern Missouri on Sunday, flattening several blocks of homes and businesses in Joplin and leaving residents frantically scrambling through the wreckage.

At least 89 have died in the massive tornado, authorities say.

City manager Mark Rohr announced the number at a pre-dawn news conference outside the wreckage of a hospital that took a direct hit from Sunday’s storm.

Rohr said the twister cut a path nearly six miles long and more than a half-mile wide through the center of town.

Much of the city’s south side was leveled, with businesses, homes and restaurants reduced to ruins.

Dr Jeff Masters provides the technical details:

The incredibly violent tornado season of 2011 struck another sickening blow last night, when a violent tornado carved a ½ – ¾ mile-wide path of devastation through Joplin, Missouri. At least 89 people died, hundreds were injured, and huge sections of the town virtually obliterated. Damage from the tornado is so severe that pavement was ripped from the ground, which is characteristic of a top-end EF-5 tornado with winds in excess of 200 mph. This was almost certainly a least an EF-4 tornado with winds over 166 mph, and the level of damage is so extreme that this is likely to surpass last month’s Tuscaloosa-Birmingham tornado as the costliest tornado of all-time.

Dr Masters has the radar images of the event as well as a NASA satellite image – a tornado big enough to be seen from space. [The tornado isn’t obvious in the picture unless you know what to look for. It is to the left and just above the center of the picture, a small swirl in the break between two masses of cumulus clouds.]