Tornado ripped through US midwest killing 24

Joplin.Mo, Missouri was ravaged by a Tornado killing 24 people and extensively damaging properties on Sunday night, forcing a state of emergency in the region.

A major hospital in town, St. John’s Regional Medical Center was knocked down, and while the building was on fire, patients were moved across the street and a triage unit was set up on the hospital ground, said initial reports.

Telephone connections and electricity were largely cut leaving the calamity struck houses of 50,000 people in darkness, but power was restored to several thousand customers within hours, according to Xcel Energy Inc spokeswoman Mary Sandok.

When the Newton County coroner, Mark Bridges was asked about the number of deaths, he told Reuters on telephone, We have heard up into the over-100 (range), but ... I don't think anyone has a good count right now.”

A string of twisters have killed hundreds of people in the recent months in Tuscaloosa, Ala., which is still recovering from the one that tore through the center of the city in late April.

Another tornado had devastated the north end of Minneapolis and some suburbs ripping through roofs of dozens of houses killing at-least 1 person and injuring dozens.

The Saturday night tornado at Kansas city had killed one person and damaged 200 buildings.

President Barack Obama said, “Federal Emergency Management Agency is working with the affected area’s state and local officials to support response and recovery efforts, and the federal government stands ready to help our fellow Americans as needed.”

Bill Davis, a meteorologist at the Springfield office of the National Weather Service, said it is too early to assess the damage but described it as something that looked to be “on the 8-9 level.”