The search for victims is continuing unabated on Thursday, just days after a massive tornado struck Joplin, Missouri, a city of 50,000 and killed 125 in the latest death toll count.

We never give up. We're not going to give up, City Manager Mark Rohr told reporters on Wednesday, AP reported.

The report noted that search and rescue crews are planning to make a fifth search of the city in an effort to find survivors. None were found in the fourth attempt.

In the coming days, as we learn the names of the dead and the reach of the destruction, we will need to lean on each other, accept help from those who are willing to give or give if we are able. To weather this storm, we must come together - and that's something we know how to do, the community paper Joplin Globe wrote in an opinion piece Thursday.

The path of the tremendous tornado - an EF-5 category giant with winds of up to 200 miles per hour - as seen in aerial photos shows utter devastation with houses splintered throughout much of the city, with damage to hundreds of homes, businesses, and a hospital.

At the hospital, St. John's Regional Medical center, a backup power generator was sucked out of the building, cutting power to five patients who had been on respirators, according to ABC News. The patients died after the main and backup power were lost.

The entire region is on high alert as the tornado season continues. In Kansas City, Missouri and Sedalia, Missouri a pair of tornadoes - of a much smaller scale than the Joplin EF-5 caused some damage, although injuries were few, according to reports.

Expectations of severe weather activity declined on Thursday to slight, according to the National Weather Service, after being elevated for most of the week.

There is a slight risk of severe thunderstorms in the eastern sections of the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys and extending further south into the central Gulf Coast states.

The storms will be capable of producing very large hail, damaging straight-line winds, a few tornadoes, frequent cloud-to-ground lightning, and torrential rainfall, the NWS reported.

A compilation of impact of tornadoes in 2011 by AP this week found that nearly 500 people have been killed and about 1,000 twisters have struck so far. The average number of tornadoes in a year is usually 1,274.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on Wednesday said every available resource from state and the federal government is going to Joplin to help people in the aftermath.

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