Talking about the end of earth...

A massive tornado that tore a four-mile path across southwestern Missouri killed at least 89 people as it slammed into the city of Joplin, ripping into a hospital and leaving a forest of splintered tree trunks behind where entire neighborhoods once stood.

Sunday's storm in Joplin hit a hospital packed with patients and a commercial area including a Home Depot construction store, numerous smaller businesses and restaurants and a grocery store. Jasper County emergency management director Keith Stammer said an estimated 2,000 buildings were damaged.

Among the worst-hit locations in Joplin was St. John's Regional Medical Center. The staff had just a few moments' notice to hustle patients into hallways before the storm struck the nine-story building, blowing out hundreds of windows and leaving the facility useless.

In the parking lot, a helicopter lay crushed on its side, its rotors torn apart and windows smashed. Nearby, a pile of cars lay crumpled into a single mass of twisted metal. Matt Sheffer dodged downed power lines, trees and closed streets to make it to his dental office across from the hospital. Rubble littered a flattened lot where a pharmacy, gas station and some doctor's offices once stood.

"My office is totally gone. Probably for two to three blocks, it's just leveled," he said. "The building that my office was in was not flimsy. It was 30 years old and two layers of brick. It was very sturdy and well built."

St. John's patients were evacuated to other hospitals in the region, said Cora Scott, a spokeswoman for the medical center's sister hospital in Springfield.

A storm chaser who filmed the twister as it ripped through the city told ABC's "Good Morning America" that it was moving faster than his car, which he was driving at 45-50 mph.

"The thing that was most amazing about this tornado was the sheer size of the tornado and how fast it was moved through the city ... the sheer size and the speed of this tornado was incredible," Jeff Piotrowksi said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110523/ap_on_re_us/us_midwest_storms

Печально... Но обещанный конец света таки наступил в отдельно выбранном городке на юго-западе штата Миссоури. 89 человек погибших и пол-города снесено подчистую. 

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