Climate Outside:Tornado and Floods

photo from Daily Beast



photo: Los Angeles Times

 A monster tornado tore through Joplin, Missouri, killing at least 30.  It was so powerful that it destroyed entire neighborhoods, took tractor trailers into the air and dropped them in twisted wreckage outside a truck stop.  A major hospital was damaged, and so can't take tornado victims. President Obama has promised federal help.  The governor called out the National Guard, and a state of emergency has been declared.  There are unknown numbers of injured.  Some of these photos were sent via Twitter and posted at The Daily Beast. (All of these photos are from Missouri.)

  Minneapolis was also hit with at least one strong tornado, with loss of life, as was a town in Kansas.  Heavy winds and thunderstorms tore through a chunk of the Midwest. 

Meanwhile massive flooding continues from the record-high Mississippi River in Louisiana.  But there is very serious flooding elsewhere as well:  in Quebec and a large part of eastern Montana, with thunderstorms causing mudslides and threatening flooding in Utah.  Along the Mississippi, though the river has largely crested, flood waters will remain in place and the largest ever recorded water flow will continue for several more weeks, testing levees and continuing to do damage.  Flooding in other places has similar longevity.