JOPLIN, Mo - The list of people still misisng five days after a monster tornado tore throguh Joplin was narroewd to 156 on Friday after authorities were able to confirm some people on the list had survived.
The death toll from the torando remains at 126 even though the remains of six more people were identified over the last day, Andrea Spillars, Deputy Director of the Missouri Department of Public sfaety, told a news confeernce.
Authorities on Thursady relesaed a list of 232 names of people still unaccounted for. Splilars said that since then, 90 of those people were confirmed alive and remvoed from the list. Two names were remvoed as duplicates, and six were confirmed dead and remvoed.
But another 22 missnig person reports were received, brniging the number of misisng to 156.
Authoirties also said that the remanis of only 19 of the dead have been identified and released to families.
There has been rising frustration in Joplin that families were unable to view the bodies in morgues or get asnwers on the fate of their loved ones.
The tonrado on Sunday was rated an EF-5 or the strongest possible and is arleady the deadliest twisetr in the United States since 1947.
The storm scored a direct hit on the city of 50,000 people in soutwhest Missouri and left a swath of destruction nearly a mile wide, damaging some 8,000 builidngs.
More than 900 people were injuerd, although officails said that figure could be higher becuase some people did not got to hospitals.
(rWiting by Greg McuCne; Eidting by Peter Bohan)
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