Area surveys damage Photo slide show

By Wally Kennedy

wkennedy@joplinglobe.com

Twenty-one people were killed and about 180 were injured Saturday when tornadoes tore across parts of Northeast Oklahoma and Southwest Missouri, authorities said.

The death toll includes six people at Picher, Okla., where nearly 300 structures, including churches, businesses and homes, were destroyed.

After a brief touchdown at Quapaw, Okla., that tornado crossed the state line into Newton County, where 13 people were killed near Missouri Highway 43 and Iris and Bethel roads. The tornado continued on to the communities of Granby and Newtonia, and to Purdy in Barry County, where one person was killed.

One person was killed near Carthage when an isolated tornado knocked trees into a mobile home. The name of that victim was unavailable Sunday night.

Mark Bridges, coroner of Newton County, said the victims in that county were Rockie Peterson, of Neosho; Linda Hasty, of Seneca; Richard, Kathy and Clayton Rountree, all of Joplin; Ruby Bilke, of Joplin; Paul Gallemore, who lived north of Racine; Daniel, Barbara, Jeff and Terrance “Joe” Monroe, who lived near the state line in rural Newton County; Christine Petree, of Morrisville; and Teri Cook, who lived north of Racine.

Bridges said the Rountree family and Bilke were traveling near Highway 43 and Iris Road when their car was blown off the road. Petree was traveling on Highway 43 to a casino when her car was blown off the road. The Monroe family reportedly was in a mobile home that was struck by the tornado.

A spokesman for Parker Mortuary in Joplin said it has received the bodies of four people who were relatives, as well as the bodies of Peterson and Petree. A spokesman for Mason-Woodard Mortuary in Joplin said it has received the bodies of four people who were related, and the body of Hasty.

The bodies of the six who were killed at Picher have been taken to the Tulsa (Okla.) Medical Examiner’s Office. Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry said Sunday afternoon that all of the missing at Picher had been accounted for by local authorities.

Firefighter injured

Susie Stonner, head of the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency, said several people were being treated Sunday night in local hospitals for critical injuries. One of them was Tyler Casey, a Seneca fireman who left his vehicle to warn a family of the approaching tornado, said Bridges. When he got to his vehicle, the tornado struck.

Hospital spokesmen in Joplin on Sunday said about 70 people were treated at St. John’s Regional Medical Center, and 48 were treated at Freeman Hospital West. Freeman Neosho Hospital treated about 20 people from Granby and Newtonia. About 40 to 50 people were treated at Integris Baptist Regional Health Center in Miami, Okla. Three people were taken to St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa.

Steve Amburn, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service station at Tulsa, said Picher was hit by an EF3 tornado that first touched the ground south of Chetopa, Kan. An EF3 has wind speeds of 136 to 165 mph.

Picher was toured early Sunday by U.S. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., and later in the day by Henry, the governor. Inhofe said he was overwhelmed by the devastation, noting it was similar to the destruction caused by a tornado that struck Moore, Okla., several years ago.