More storms feared as death toll rises to 116
Rescue crews clawed through the rubble overnight searching for survivors yesterday after a tornado in Missouri killed 116 people, amid warnings that more powerful storms were on the way.
US President Barack Obama said he was "heartbroken" over the devastation wrought by the massive storm over the weekend and would visit the disaster zone on Sunday, following his four-nation visit to Europe.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the families that are suffering at the moment," Obama told reporters in London, after earlier promising federal aid for recovery efforts.
"All we can do is let them know that all of America cares deeply about them and we are going to do absolutely everything we can to make sure they can recover."
Shocked residents of the Missouri town of Joplin were meanwhile digging through the rubble of their homes, astonished by the extent of the devastation.
"That's all that's left," Roger Dedick said on Monday as he pointed to a section of foundation, the remains of his home of 17 years in Joplin after the deadliest single tornado in six decades ripped through the town.
He said he had to use a metal bar to pry himself out of his crushed home.
More than 2,000 buildings -- or about a third of the city of 50,000 near the border with Kansas and Oklahoma -- were damaged or destroyed, when the twister came roaring through with just a 24-minute warning.
The Joplin tornado is on course to be the deadliest single twister to strike the United States since modern record keeping began in 1950 -- matching the toll in a tornado in Flint, Michigan in 1953 that also left 116 people dead.
A single twister in 1925 is said to have left 695 dead in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, but that was before accurate record-taking began.
Joplin residents were meanwhile warned that more potent storms were on the way after Sunday's massive twister cut a swath of destruction 6.4 kilometres long and more than a kilometre wide.
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