Tornado Damage In Missouri And Minnesota (PHOTOS)

Tornadoes tore through parts of the Midwest on Sunday, with reports of fatalities in Minnesota and Missouri. The southwest Missouri city of Joplin saw widespread damage; city streets were reportedly impassible.

The Associated Press reports:

Resident Tom Rogers walked around viewing the damage with his daughter.

"Our house is gone. It's just gone," Rogers told The Joplin Globe. "We heard the tornado sirens for the second time. All of a sudden, everything came crashing down on us. We pulled our heads up and there was nothing. It was gone."

Read the full report here. Images of the damage from the tornadoes are provided below.

Comments

[ckinsobe]

12:00 PM on 05/27/2011

What kind of building codes are in place in Tornado Alley? It seems logical to me that trailers and flimsy construction are not the way to go here. California builds for Earthquakes, do they not build for Tornadoes? I realize that 200 miles per hour is insane but at the very least trailers and wood frame housing should be deemed the wrong type of habitat in the area. Communities could build underground shelters in neighborhoods for example. But that would involve investing by local governments in that type of project. You need politicians that stand for imporving infrastructure and also for taking climate change seriously IMHO.

[Msolo Mojamoja]

06:51 PM on 05/25/2011

heh hee! why are you guys cryibg? you deserve all this!

EVERY PASSING DAY YOU ARE BUSY KILLING OTHERS IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST.

WE HAVE THEREFORE CREATED THE TORNADO FOR REVENGE! SO FUNNY TO SEE YOU CRYING! AREN'T YOU STRONG AND POWERFUL?

[goddess1871]

11:04 AM on 05/24/2011

Dear Baggers: You think on this the next time you think about opening your yap about people feeding off the teat of everyone else. You think on this the next time you think about screaming about how the government is trying to limit your freedoms because it thinks we need to do something proactive about the environment and how we've screwed it up. You think on this the next time you talk about teachers and firefighters and nurses being "slobs" that need to fend for themselves. And don't you DARE apply for FEMA assistance. Pull your own selves up by your bootstraps. Or does that not apply to you now?

[dragonlady620]

04:31 PM on 05/24/2011

I agree with your sentiments but they're likely to fall on deaf ears. Look at RIck Perry and Bobby Jindahl- two of the most vocal about "government interference" and two who were screaming the loudest for federal help when they needed it- and acraming the loudest about the slowness of the response.
Bagger logic is the product of some kind of alternate universe.

[skyspirit77777]

04:36 AM on 05/24/2011

when are the naysayers going to wake up and admit that we have abused our planet and now we reap what we sow?? Al Gore had a point , as have many others in those fields of research who for at least the past 20 years warned us this was coming .. now its here and the average person in their little bubble worlds who have all the amenities and a paycheck cant fathom it and joke daily about it .. wait till its their turn to lose it all and see how loud they scream .. I live in So. Calif where disaters come with the seasons , but most are avoidable because people think they can master evberything and build wherever they want and soon find out that hills slide rivers and lakes fill eventually and fires clean the ground .. and the earthquakes which with the fact Japan just dropped up to 6 ft in some places lends credence to the notion of Calif falling into the ocean .. this planet has power beyond what most can imagine .. and after 100 major years of abuse and overpopulation , the bill is due .. my thoughts and prayers go to all who are enduring these horrors .. when its all done maybe they will demand changes in our environment, but sadly i think we are past the point of no return .. many elders told us this was coming .. now its here ..

[breakingpoint]

01:40 AM on 05/24/2011

holy.... Armageddon!

anyone have a weather link where the storm was tracked from it's development?
the pictures of these cloud patterns look more than strange
I've never seen such erratic pockets of weather within one same system traveling for so long and so wide

[Trittydi]

11:51 PM on 05/23/2011

On behalf of the grieving survivors - could you please consider taking out the picture of the dead man in the truck - the one with the arm hanging down?

I'm sorry - that just seem so cruel and tasteless.
*

[Kim0330]

03:40 PM on 05/24/2011

I totally agree.

[Andrew Bleckman]

05:08 AM on 05/25/2011

AGREED

[Trittydi]

11:48 PM on 05/23/2011

Awesomely powerful Mother nature can squash us like a bug if we're in her path at the wrong time.
*

[Trittydi]

11:43 PM on 05/23/2011

So tragic - my heart goes out to these devastated people.

Does anyone here know, or care to speculate, why all the trees in Joplin were stripped of every single leaf and even their bark - but in Minneapolis the trees still had all their leaves?
*

[dragonlady620]

07:03 PM on 05/24/2011

The sheer size may have had something to do with it- it's being called the biggest tornado in modern history. But there's no real accounting of what a tornado does. I've seen one raze a couple of blocks completely and leave one house untouched. There's plenty of stories about houses that were decimated except for small parts that were left intact. Although we know a lot more about them than we did a few years ago, we still don't really know what makes them happen.

[chickenflu4]

11:22 PM on 05/23/2011

if you eff with nature, nature effs you back!

[Sheldon archer]

11:04 PM on 05/23/2011

When all these regular disasters happen, does it ever enter peoples' minds that maybe there is no benevolent, kind, caring, Big Daddy in the sky looking out for them? Probably not.

[Trittydi]

11:45 PM on 05/23/2011

Now is not the time for this.
*

[wildcinema]

10:47 PM on 05/23/2011

as long as we ignore the killing of wars for profit the demise of our country won't stop,it's called karma or to some the wrap of god. american people have became full of hatred, bigotry, selfishness,colonizers and totally heartless, not to mention our government poisoning our minds with drugs and food substances that alter our bodies and minds combine with the lack of education of our youth for the purpose of inferior population to easy manipulate.

[nemokc]

12:04 AM on 05/24/2011

This was a natural disaster of unbelievable magnitude. It had NOTHING to do with the politics of war, hatred or bigotry. You use the same twisted logic to spew your hate that Fred Phelps uses to protest military funerals.

There are children in this town finding their friends dead in the street. Try focusing on compassion in the future and not on witnessing!

[Hooponopono]

09:51 PM on 05/23/2011

Hardly a day goes by that we don't turn on the TV and see some kind of weather extreme happening some place. Those of us that have been on the planet for a long time, KNOW that we're regularly seeing weather events that were unthinkable in our youth.

Folks, I'm beyond convinced that the planet is trying to tell us something. And, I'm horrified that nobody seems to be listening. How much more distruction will it take for us to pay attention AND LISTEN.

[skyspirit77777]

04:22 AM on 05/24/2011

im with you on that one , tornado events like this used to happen ever 20 or so yrs like Andover KS but now its a yearly event , in my 46 yrs ive watched as the naysayers scoff at the reports while those who are researching it said it will get worse and it has .. yet the majority sit and laugh and just expect their lives to stay the same and its nothing to affect them . keep watching over the next year there will be more and bigger events around the world . some say its because of an unknown planet on an 11,000 yr orbit coming back and the gravitational mass is twisting our planet and several ancient civilizations seemed to know about back to the Smarian culture .. ive heard something recently from an astronomer about a gravitational ,mass past our last known planet coming closer for the past 2 yrs and it seems to be when all the major events started .. do i have proof ?? not yet but i have a feeling soon something is gonna come out . for now be aware

[Dave Harrison]

09:36 PM on 05/23/2011

If that don't touch your heart you are a (fill in the blank).

[Susan Osterhout Troiano]

09:09 PM on 05/23/2011

These pictures look like the after math of Hiroshima. Just devastating. May the angels be with these people during this difficult time.

[Trittydi]

11:45 PM on 05/23/2011

Interesting comparison.
*

[theobserver4]

10:57 PM on 05/23/2011

Every time we ask Israel to live up to their moral obligation god knocks around America's evangelical base?

That's some serious irony.