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134 confirmed dead in tornado
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo
This frame grab from video shows a massive tornado on Sunday, May 22, 2011, outside Joplin, Mo. The tornado tore a 6-mile path across southwestern Missouri killing at least 89 people as it slammed into the city of Joplin, ripping into a hospital, crushing cars like soda cans and leaving a forest of splintered tree trunks behind where entire neighborhoods once stood.
AP
Photo
Andrea Schemet pauses while salvaging items from a destroyed home belonging to a friend's mother-in-law in Joplin, Mo. Friday, May 27, 2011. An EF-5 tornado tore through much of the city Sunday, damaging a hospital and hundreds of homes and businesses and killing at least 126 people. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Associated Press
JOPLIN, Mo.
Everyone reported missing since last week’s massive tornado in Joplin has been accounted for, and at least 134 people have been confirmed killed, state officials said Wednesday.
The Missouri Department of Public Safety said the confirmed death toll of 134 includes 124 people who had been on the unaccounted-for list, seven people who were taken immediately to funeral homes after the storm, and three people who have since died in the hospital from their injuries.
More than 8,000 homes and apartments and more than 500 commercial properties were damaged or destroyed in the tornado.
Officials said the final 10 people on the list were tracked down by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, which has led the effort to find the 268 people listed as unaccounted for after the May 22 tornado.
“Our troopers worked 24/7 to locate these individuals and to bring relief to the families of the living and closure to the families of those who died,” Gov. Jay Nixon said. “This was a critical mission that our Missouri State Highway Patrol performed exceptionally well.”
The state said the Jasper County coroner has authorized the release of bodies that had been at a temporary morgue to their families so they may be laid to rest. By Wednesday afternoon, 119 victims had been released from the morgue, the state said in a news release.
The state now believes the 134 deaths is the up-to-date death toll but cautioned there could be more from people currently hospitalized with severe injuries.
“It is our belief that, pending further deaths from those injured, the count is 134,” said Seth Bundy, a spokesman for the state. “We do have some folks critically injured in hospitals, and we’re hoping and praying that they will pull through.”
Bundy said he did not know how many people are critically injured.