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May 11, 2008

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Sun May 11, 2008, 11:05 PM CDT

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.

Walking through the rubble, Inhofe picked up a child’s toy and said: “When you see a little kid’s toy, it really hits home.”

Inhofe was shown where a woman rode out the storm by seeking shelter in a bathroom tub. After the tornado passed, all that remained of her home were two bathroom walls and the tub.

Ed Keheley, a resident of Picher, said aerial photographs showed that 295 structures were destroyed in the south end of Picher. About 48 structures in the Mineral Heights subdivision were leveled.

The tornado touched down north of Quapaw before entering Missouri near Highway 43 and Bethel Road in Newton County.

“At first, we thought there were maybe two tornadoes, but it was one,” said Bill Davis, head of the National Weather Service station at Springfield. “This tornado contracted and expanded from the state line to an area north of Neosho. In a couple of places, it was a mile wide. The average was a half-mile wide.”

All of the victims in Newton County were killed in a 12-mile path of destruction from the state line to north of Neosho.

The tornado was ranked as an EF3 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, which categorizes a tornado’s wind speed by the damage it causes. The greater the damage, the higher the ranking.

“At one point, that tornado was bordering on an EF4 with wind speeds of 170 mph,” Davis said. “Cars were just tossed around.”

The tornado continued as an EF2 and EF3 south of Granby and traveled across the Newtonia area before dissipating into an EF1 tornado at Purdy, where one person was killed. Skip White, Barry County coroner, said that person’s name was not being released pending notification of next of kin.

Carthage tornado

Bill Davis, with the National Weather Service in Springfield, said authorities initially thought that a young woman, who was killed Saturday when a tree fell onto a mobile home east of Carthage, was a victim of straight-line winds. Davis said the damage was not caused by straight-line winds, but by an EF1 tornado.

Davis said the tornado in Newton County destroyed 45 to 55 houses and 80 to 100 outbuildings in the area from the state line to an area north of Neosho.