Associated Press Writer
SENECA, Mo. (AP) — As Bonnie Fanning sat alone in her underground concrete storm shelter, she heard a tornado rip off a vent and send flying debris slamming into its doors.
“It roared down in there,” the 77-year-old woman said. “I knew it was a funnel.”
Although Saturday night’s tornado demolished her mobile home, Fanning said she was blessed to have made it into the shelter 10 minutes before the storm it.
She survived a tornado that killed 15 in three Missouri counties and left several others critically injured as it swept through mostly rural areas. Another seven died in Oklahoma and Georgia.
The victims included a Joplin family of five who died when their car was thrown more than 100 yards from a rural road into a nearby field as the family was traveling to a wedding. Another family of four died when a tree hit their mobile home.
The death toll could still rise, as several victims remained hospitalized Monday. Among the injured was a Seneca fireman who left his car to warn a family about the oncoming tornado.
As Fanning picked up bits of plywood from her yard on Sunday, she said she would buy a small travel trailer and live on the property until she decided what to do next.
“I am not depressed or anything,” she said. “No use to get all upset about it. What are you going to do?”
For most of Sunday, search crews with dogs combed debris-strewn fields, while helicopters circled over the 12-mile-long path of the tornado, which at one point reached wind speeds of 170 mph. The Empire District Electric Co. said about 2,000 customers remained without power Sunday evening.
Thirteen of the 15 Missouri deaths were in Newton County, with a rural area eight miles north of Seneca the hardest hit.
Another fatality was reported north of Purdy in Barry County, the National Weather Service said. And a 17-year-old girl died near Carthage in Jasper County after winds knocked a tree onto a trailer, said Carthage Fire Capt. Tom Nixon.
Susan Roberts, 61, was struggling to come to terms with the death of a woman whose body was found in the smashed remains of Roberts’ classic 1985 Cadillac, which wound up in the living room of her demolished house.
Before the storm, Roberts had warned the woman, who had stopped to change a tire, about the approaching storm. Then Roberts left with her 13-year-old grandson. The woman apparently took shelter in Roberts’ car.
“That is what is tearing me up. I’m from Kansas. I grew up watching storms,” she said as she walked through the debris. “If I didn’t have my grandson with me, I probably wouldn’t have left.”
In Granby, about 20 miles to the east, the tornado leveled the hillside Neosho/Granby Seventh Day Adventist Church. Hours earlier, 21 congregants had gathered Saturday to worship the Sabbath.
“There was a divine hand at work,” said congregant Mike Roush, surrounded by fallen bricks, broken pews and other debris.
And in Newtonia, the storm tore a hole through the roof of a Civil War-era mansion under consideration for designation as a national battlefield.
Gov. Matt Blunt is expected to arrive in southwest Missouri to survey the damage later Monday. President Bush expressed his condolences to Blunt, said White House spokesman Blair Jones.
“The federal government will be moving hard to help,” Bush said in a statement.
Blunt’s administration activated the state’s emergency operations plan and ordered about 20 National Guard troops to patrol in Newtonia and Granby.
Susie Stonner, spokeswoman for the State Emergency Management Agency, said it was unclear how many homes were damaged or destroyed. Newton County had initial estimates of 50 homes damaged or destroyed there, she said.
The tornado was classified as EF3 and was approximately 300 yards wide, remaining on the ground for about 12 miles and 15 minutes as it traveled east. It hit the rural area about eight miles north of Seneca and went east, said Keith Stammer, director of emergency management in Jasper County.
Next door to Roberts, Jane Lant climbed over the splintered wood to go through the mud-caked remains of her bridal shop. Next door, her husband’s feed store also lay in shambles.
Bill Lant vowed he would rebuild the feed store.
“I just feel so awful, going through this rubble when they are out looking for bodies,” she said as she motioned to the search dogs wandering the field behind her.
A few miles down the road, Verda McKenna had gone into town for some groceries and supper when the tornado hit. She came home to find her mobile completely gone.
