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Joplin, Missouri, Devastated
Photograph by Mike Gullett, AP
People walk a devastated street in Joplin, Missouri (map), on Sunday, hours after a tornado killed at least 116 people, as of Monday afternoon, and left the town in ruins.
The tornado tore a path roughly a mile (1.6 kilometers) wide and six miles (9.6 kilometers) long, destroying a hospital, flattening a school, and slamming cars into buildings, the Associated Press reported.
"You see pictures of World War II, the devastation and all that with the bombing. That's really what it looked like," Joplin resident and high school principal Kerry Sachetta told the AP.
The especially violent twister may have been an F5 tornado on the Fujita scale, which ranks tornadoes based on wind speed and damage potential, according to Jeff Masters, meteorological director for the Weather Underground website.
An F4 tornado packs winds from 207 to 260 miles (333 to 418 kilometers) an hour, while an F5 storm's gusts rage from 261 to 318 miles (420 to 511 kilometers) an hour.
ON TV: Witness: Tornado Swarm 2011 airs Sunday, May 29, 9 p.m. ET/PT >>
—With reporting by Willie Drye
Published May 23, 2011
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Salvaging the Remains in Missouri
Photograph by Larry W. Smith, European Pressphoto Agency
Larry Knoblauch looks for items inside his daughter's house on Monday, the day after a giant tornado hit the town of Joplin, Missouri.
Including the Joplin tornado, 68 tornadoes churned across seven midwestern states over the weekend, according to the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center.
The Joplin tornado's devastation was reminiscent of a band of tornadoes that stormed the U.S. South in April, killing hundreds, the AP reported.
(See "Alabama Tornado Pictures: Mile-Wide 'Monster' Slams Towns.")
Published May 23, 2011
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Tornado Too Close to Home
Photograph by Mike Stone, Reuters
Early Monday, debris surrounds a damaged home in a neighborhood hard-hit by the Joplin, Missouri, tornado the day before.
Tornadoes often form in the Deep South in early spring, and the likelihood of tornadoes moves northward as spring progresses.
Published May 23, 2011
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Smashed Cars in Joplin
Photograph by Ed Zurga, Reuters
Cars smashed by the tornado rest in the parking lot of St. John's Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Missouri, on May 23.
(Learn what happens inside a twister.)
Published May 23, 2011
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Amid the Joplin Rubble
Photograph by Larry W. Smith, European Pressphoto Agency
Joplin, Missouri, resident Ted Grabenauer watches as emergency crews clean the street in front of his tornado-ravaged home on May 23.
(Watch: "Tornadoes, Lightning in Rare Video.")
Published May 23, 2011
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Tornado Victim
Photograph by Mike Stone, Reuters
A body bag containing a victim of Sunday's Joplin, Missouri, tornado lies on the floor of a destroyed building on Monday.
Rescuers searching the rubble have not yet found any survivors as of midday Monday, according to the AP.
Published May 23, 2011
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Out of House and Home
Photograph by Mike Stone, Reuters
Ted Grabenauer sleeps on his front porch on Monday, the morning after a tornado ripped the roof off his home in Joplin, Missouri.
See pictures of 2010 Midwest tornado damage from the National Geographic Channel >>
Published May 23, 2011
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