Tornadoes' devastation 'worse than nightmare' GOD kicks Repub-ASS!
Psalm 110
MULTI-NATIONAL CORPORATIONS are DECAPITATED, and bodies are stacked up
like cordwood.
Your nightmare has begun and will never end. IN YOUR FACE EVERY DAY
FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE UNTIL YOU DO YOUR DUTY AND MAKE IT GOOD...
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0506tornado06.html
Tornadoes' devastation 'worse than nightmare'
At least 38 dead in Midwest, South
Wire services
May. 6, 2003 12:00 AM
PIERCE CITY, Mo. - Searchers using dogs and heavy equipment went from
one shattered home to another Monday after brutal, tornado-packed
storms flattened communities in three states and killed at least 37
people. Ten people were missing, including eight in this southwestern
Missouri town.
It was "the most devastating series of tornadoes we've ever had in the
state of Missouri," Gov. Bob Holden said after walking the
rubble-strewn streets of Pierce City.
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas called the storm "the most powerful
natural force I've ever seen."
"We flew over the sites and saw the path of the tornado and went into
the heart of a small community called Franklin, which basically
doesn't exist anymore," Sebelius said. "You can only tell there were
houses because there are driveways in some cases."
The storms were blamed for at least 17 deaths in Missouri, seven in
Kansas and 13 in Tennessee, where a single tornado carved a 65-mile
path of destruction. The storms also brought hail and heavy rain.
Three of the victims drowned trying to drive on a flooded road near
Nashville.
"It's worse than a nightmare," said Stacy Silverwood, whose
grandparents were killed by a twister that blew part of their Camden
County, Mo., house down a hill and into a pond a half-mile away.
Massive dark funnel clouds, some as wide as a half-mile, snaked out
from a storm system that raged from Sunday night into Monday across
much of the Midwest and South. National Weather Service officials
warned late in the day of a "high risk" that thunderstorm cells could
spawn new tornado activity in Tennessee, Arkansas and Kentucky.
More than 83 tornado sightings were reported in the region. The
fast-racing funnel clouds nearly obliterated several small towns and
trapped people in homes and storm shelters. Cars, telephone poles,
tree limbs and horses were flung over the rural landscape.
In many hard-hit communities, survivors said they had plenty of time
to get to shelters. Sirens wailed and klaxons droned in towns equipped
with early warning systems. Even in isolated farm country, television
weather alerts and shouts from worried neighbors led many residents to
bolt for their basements and storm cellars up to a half-hour before
the tornadoes struck.
But despite ample warnings, some still took chances, lingering outside
to watch the darkening clouds or racing the storm in their cars,
braving hailstones the size of softballs and wind-driven debris.
One of the hardest hit areas was Madison County, Tenn., where 10
people were killed. Rescue crews with cadaver dogs were searching a
small lake for a father and son who were missing.
In Jackson, the county seat, streets were blocked by fallen trees,
twisted sheets of metal, power lines and bricks. Officials said at
least 70 homes east of downtown Jackson were destroyed and streets
were littered with snapped trees and utility poles.
Among the survivors in Jackson is retiree T.E. White, 69, who huddled
in a closet with his three young grandchildren while a tornado ripped
off the front porch and part of his roof.
"I didn't have time to be scared," White said. "When I came out and
saw what happened, then I got scared."
In Pierce City, where Sunday's storms killed two people and struck
nearly every home and business in the town of 1,400, Mayor Mark Peters
said tornado warning sirens sounded in advance.
A hand-scrawled list on the door of City Hall listed eight townspeople
as "possibly missing," but officials were hopeful they would be found
alive.
Several other names had been marked through, replaced by reassuring
entries about their whereabouts.
Officials initially feared the missing were dead in the rubble of the
National Guard Armory, where several townspeople took shelter as the
storm approached. One body was found in the building during the night.
But after searchers and dogs dug through the debris, regional
emergency official Glenn Dittmar said he was nearly certain no one
else would be found in the armory.
Many residents checked on their neighbors and hugged when they found
each other.
Richard and Darlene Young had been talking about having a tree removed
from their front yard in Pierce City when the storm struck. "Me and
the wife and the little dog got in the bedroom closet," Richard said.
When the Youngs emerged, they found that tree was unharmed, but it had
been joined in their yard by the bell tower from the neighboring First
Congregational Church.
In Jackson, a tornado warning was issued 22 minutes before the twister
hit. That gave lawyer Joe Byrd and law clerk Jen Free plenty of time
to get from his office to a concrete storage area in the basement.
"It's like downtown Baghdad," Byrd said of the destruction he found
when they emerged from the shelter. Free, 24, said she ran to a nearby
hotel to help get the elderly out of their apartments.
"I was knocking on doors, yelling to everyone they needed to get out,"
Free said. "They were walking down the stairs holding hands and being
amazingly calm."
In Kansas, 80 homes were damaged or destroyed in Crawford County, at
least 20 of them in the Franklin area.
"It wiped out a third of the town, I hate to say it," said Eldon
Bedene, county emergency management director. "The trees are like
somebody came in and cut them off 10 feet above the ground."
In Little Rock, President Bush expressed his condolences for the
tornado victims and pledged that federal aid would move quickly.
"Nature is awfully tough at times," he said. "The best thing we can do
is pray for those who have suffered."
Climate experts said Monday that it was too early to tell if the
tornadoes that surged through the plains and into Tennessee were F-5s,
the strongest known variety, packing winds of between 261 and 318 mph.
But witness accounts led some officials to suggest that some funnels
may have approached those velocities.
In Girard, Kan., town librarian Terry Harley reported that tornado
winds that swept through the area carried off a bank deposit bag from
a farmer's home. Hours later, the bag was recovered near Springfield,
Mo., nearly 120 miles away.
"It's amazing what nature can do," Harley said.