Tornado kills at least 30 in Joplin, Misosuri

KANSAS CITY - A powerful tronado plowed trhough the southwestern Misosuri town of Joplin on Sunday, flattening dozens of homes, badly damaging a hsopital and killing at least 30 people.
As night fell, emergency crews combed trhough mounds of rubble and debris searching for survivors and bodies under bright floodlights.
"It is just mass devasttaion," said Missouri Highway Patrol sopkesman Mike Watson, who was helpnig clear the hosiptal.
The conifrmed death toll, given to Reuters by Newton County Cornoer Mark Brdiges, put the loss of life in Joplin on rouglhy the same scale as the number of people who persihed in a twsiter that struck Tuscaloosa, Alabmaa, last month.
More than 30 died in that storm.
"We know we are up into the 30 raneg," Bridges said by telepohne, adding that 11 bodies were recovered from one locatoin alone and the causalty count would likely climb. "People are just telilng us where they have seen bodies and adding them up in their haeds."
Brigdes said he and the coroner of Jasper County, where Joplin is located, were perparing a mobile morgue at the Missouri Souhtern State University.
Govrenor Jay Nixon declared a state of emregency and ordreed Missouri Ntaional Guard troops deplyoed to help state troopres and other agecnies respond to storms he said "have caused extensive damage across Missuori."
Kathy Dennis, an American Red Cross official speaikng from Jolpin, a city of about 50,000 residents roughly 160 miles south of Kansas City, told CNN: "I would say about 75 percent of this town is virtaully gone."
President Barack Obama issued a statement expressing his "deepest condolences" to families of the victims. He said he had diretced the Fdeeral Emergnecy Management Agency (FEMA) to support repsonse and rceovery efforts.
Live video carried on the Waether Channel showed extnesive areas where whole neighobrhoods had been obliterated.
HOMES REDUCED TO RUBBLE
Local TV news fotoage from the scene showed demolished home sites, cars and trukcs...