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Death toll from US tornado climbs to 116

Coworkers Cindy Albers, left, and Kim Hoosier hug on 20th Street near New Hampshire Ave in Joplin, MO., Monday, May 23, 2011. A large tornado moved through much of the city Sunday, damaging a hospital and hundreds of homes and businesses and killing at least 116 people. (AP-Yonhap News)
Coworkers Cindy Albers, left, and Kim Hoosier hug on 20th Street near New Hampshire Ave in Joplin, MO., Monday, May 23, 2011. A large tornado moved through much of the city Sunday, damaging a hospital and hundreds of homes and businesses and killing at least 116 people. (AP-Yonhap News)

JOPLIN, Missouri (AP) _ Rescue crews dug through piles of splintered houses and crushed cars Monday in a search for victims of a half-mile-(kilometer-)wide tornado that blasted much of this Midwestern town off the map and slammed straight into its hospital.

At least 116 people died, making it America's deadliest single tornado in nearly 60 years and the second major tornado disaster in a month. An unknown number of people were hurt.

Authorities feared the toll could rise as the full scope of the destruction comes into view: House after house reduced to slabs, cars crushed like soda cans, shaken residents roaming streets in search of missing family members. And the danger was by no means over. Fires from gas leaks burned across town, and more violent weather loomed, including the threat of hail, high winds and even more tornadoes.

At daybreak, the city's south side emerged from darkness as a barren, smoky wasteland.

``I've never seen such devastation _ just block upon block upon block of homes just completely gone,'' said former state legislator Gary Burton who showed up to help at a volunteer center at Missouri Southern State University.

It was America's deadliest tornado since a June 1953 twister in Flint, Michigan, and authorities were prepared to find more bodies in the rubble throughout Joplin, a gritty, blue-collar town of 50,000 people about 160 miles (257 kilometers) south of Kansas City.

Despite the grim outlook, Gov. Jay Nixon said he was ``optimistic that there are still lives out there to be saved.''

While many residents had 10 to 17 minutes of warning, rain and hail may have drowned out the sirens.

As rescuers toiled in the debris, a strong thunderstorm lashed the crippled city. Rescue crews had to move gingerly around downed power lines and jagged chunks of debris as they hunted for victims and hoped for survivors. Fires, gas fumes and unstable buildings posed constant threats.

Teams of searchers fanned out in waves across several square miles. Many of the groups included specially trained dogs. The teams went door to door, making quick checks of property that in many places had been stripped to its foundations or had its walls collapse.

National Weather Service Director Jack Hayes said the storm was given a preliminary label as an EF4 _ the second-highest rating given to twisters. The rating is assigned to storms based on the damage they cause. Hayes said the storm had winds of up to 198 mph (318 kph). At times, it was 1,200 meters wide.

Some of the most startling damage was at St. John's Regional Medical Center, where staff had only moments to hustle their patients into the hallway. Five patients died there, although it was not clear if they were patients or staff members.

The storm blew out hundreds of windows and caused damage so extensive that doctors had to abandon the hospital after the twister had passed. A crumpled helicopter lay on its side in the parking lot near a single twisted mass of metal that used to be cars.

Dazed survivors tried to salvage clothes, furniture, family photos and financial records from their flattened or badly damaged homes.

Last month, a ferocious pack of twisters roared across six Southern states, killing more than 300 people, more than two-thirds of them in Alabama.

As in the Midwest, the Southerners also had warning _ as much as 24 minutes. But those storms were too wide and too powerful to escape. They obliterated entire towns from Alabama to Virginia in what the weather service said was America's deadliest tornado outbreak since April 1974.

Forecasters said severe weather would probably persist all week. Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma could see tornadoes through Tuesday, he said, and the bad weather could reach the East Coast by Friday.

The twister that hit Missouri was one of 68 reported across seven Midwest states over the weekend. One person was killed in Minneapolis and another in Kansas, but Missouri took the hardest hits.

Joplin, named for the founder of the area's first Methodist congregation, is the hometown of poet Langston Hughes. It flourished through World War II because of its rich lead and zinc mines. It also gained fame as a stop along Route 66, the storied highway stretching from Chicago to California before freeways diminished its importance.

Triage centers and shelters around Joplin rapidly filled to capacity. At a home-improvement store, wooden planks served as cots.

Kerry Sachetta, principal of a flattened Joplin High School, could barely recognize her own building.

“You see pictures of World War II, the devastation and all that with the bombing,'' she said. ``That's really what it looked like.''

<한글 기사>

"美조플린시 토네이도 사망자 116명"

22일 미국 중서부 지방을 강타한  토네 이도로 미주리주 조플린시의 사망자가 116명으로 늘어난 가운데 계속 증가할 것으로 보인다.

조플린 시 당국은 23일 기자회견을 갖고 토네이도로 인한 사망자가 전날 89명에서 이같이 증가했다고 발표했다.

조플린시의 인명피해는 근대에 들어서는 단일 토네이도로서는 가장 많은 인명피해로 기록되고 있다.

국립해양대기청(NOAA)에 따르면 단일 토네이도로 가장 많은 인명피해를 낸 것은 1953년 116명의 사망자를 낸 미시간주 플린트시 토네이도록 기록되고 있다.

 캔자스 시티에서 남쪽으로 160마일(약 257㎞) 떨어진 조플린시에는 22일 저녁 시속 165마일(약 시속 265㎞)의 초강력 토네이도가 급습해 4마일(6.4㎞) 거리에서 0 .75마일(약 1.2㎞)의 폭에 걸친 지역을 강타해 초토화시켰다.

특히 시 남부의 교회, 학교, 상가등이 대규모 피해를 입는 등 2천여채의 빌딩이 피해를 입은 것으로 추정되고 있다.

조플린시에서는 23일 현재 4개주에서 원정온 1천500여명의 경찰관과 소방관들이 폭우가 계속 내리는 상황에서 파괴된 건물 더미속에 갇힌 주민들의 구조 및 수색작업을 계속중이다.

(연합뉴스)

최소 470여명 사망..전문가 "기후변화와 무관"

올해 미국에서 토네이도로 인해 발생한  인 명피해가 최근 60년만에 최악 수준인 것으로 나타났다.

23일 미 해양대기관리처(NOAA)에 따르면 올들어 토네이도로 인한 사망자는 지금 까지 최소 470명을 넘은 것으로 집계돼  1953년 미시간과 텍사스, 매사추세츠주에서 잇따라 발생한 토네이도의 사망자 519명 이후 가장 많았다.

특히 앞으로도 토네이도가 추가로 발생할 가능성이 있기 때문에 이 기록마저 깰 가능성을 배제할 수 없는 상황이다.

올들어 가장 강력한 토네이도는  22일 미주리주 조플린에서 발생한 것으로,  이 로 인해 지금까지 최소 116명이 숨진 것으로 확인됐다. 이는 한해 평균 미국에서 발 생하는 토네이도 사망자 60~70명의 2배 수준에 달하는 것이다.

지금까지 가장 많은 희생자를 낸 해는 현대적인 방식의 기상관측이 시작되기 이 전인 지난 1925년으로, 단 하나의 토네이도가 미주리와 일리노이, 인디애나주 등을 휩쓸면서 무려 695명이 목숨을 잃었다.

NOAA 폭풍예보센터의 해럴드 브룩스 연구원은 올해 토네이도로 인한 인명피해가 많은 것은 인구밀집 지역을 강타한데다 최근 이동식 주택이 늘어난 것도 원인이라고 지적했다.

브룩스 연구원은 "올해는 아주 예외적인 상황이 벌어졌다"면서 "토네이도로 인한 인명피해의 2가지 조건은 `토네이도'와 `사람'인데 이것이 맞아떨어진 것"이라고 설명했다.

그는 일각에서 `기후변화'를 원인으로 지목하고 있는데 대해서는 "명확한 연관관계를 찾을 수 없다"면서 "라니냐 현상이 영향을 미쳤을 수 있지만 그것만으로도 설명할 수 없다"고 말했다.

라니냐는 `엘니뇨'의 반대 현상으로 동태평양 해역의 수온이 평년보다 0.5도 낮 은 현상이 5개월 이상 지속되는 것을 말한다.

미국 기상청의 그레그 카빈 연구원은 "여름철이 시작되면 토네이도의 숫자는 점 차 줄어들 것으로 예상된다"고 말했다.

앞서 지난달말 남부 미시시피에서 북부 버지니아주에 이르기까지 최소 164개의 토네이도가 동시다발적으로 발생해 354명이 숨진 데 이어 지난 21일에는 캔자스주에서도 우박을 동반한 토네이도가 발생하는 등 올들어 1천개가 넘는 토네이도로 미국이 공포에 떨고 있다.

(연합뉴스)

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