Deadly tornado hits Joplin in Missouri, kills 31

A devastating tornado ripped through Joplin, Missouri, on late Sunday afternoon, damaging a hospital building and killing at least 31 people, with one death reported in Minneapolis.

I don't think anyone has a good count right now. At this point we know we are up into the 30 range, Newton County Coroner Mark Bridges was quoted as saying about the casualties by Reuters.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has declared a state of emergency following the powerful storm.

Sunday’s tornado in parts of the U.S. Midwest is the latest of spring tornadoes that have caused extensive property damage and more than 330 deaths across seven states in the U.S. last month. In Alabama alone, 238 people died in the squall on April 27.

The U.S. spring weather has been unusually violent this year as storms and floods have devastated some parts of the country.

Weeks of heavy rains have caused the Mississippi River to rise, flooding thousands of homes and 3 million acres (1.2 million hectares) of farmland in Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas in the United States.