http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10438117
Tornado flattens Kansas farming town
8:20AM Sunday May 06, 2007
KANSAS CITY, Missouri - A tornado wiped out most of a small farming
town in southwestern Kansas, killing seven people and injuring at
least 63, emergency officials said today.
The funnel cloud hit Greensburg, smashing buildings, overturning
vehicles and knocking out communications towers. Aerial television
news footage showed ruins throughout the community of about 1,800
people.
Rescue workers were going door to door, helped by National Guard
troops. Some residents said on television that emergency sirens had
given them about 20 minutes of warning before the driving winds hit
the town.
"There is still a possibility that we do not have all the people
accounted for," said a spokeswoman for the state emergency management
agency.
The tornado was "massive," measuring up to 1 mile wide, said Michael
Lacy, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Dodge City,
Kansas.
Winds were as strong as 266 kph, he said.
Severe thunderstorms continued to move through the US Midwest.
Greensburg's hospital and schools were destroyed. The water tower next
to the town's main tourist attraction -- the world's largest hand-dug
well -- was damaged, Lacy said. The town also boasts a 454 kg meteor.
The peak US tornado season runs from March through early July.
Tornadoes kill about 70 people in the United States each year. The
worst cluster came on April 3-4, 1974 when 307 people were killed by
148 tornadoes in 13 states.
The most violent single tornado appeared on March 18, 1925, killing
689 people as it ran from Missouri across southern Illinois into
Indiana.
- REUTERS
=====================
.
|
