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Tornado levels 90% of US town
05/05/2007 18:02 - (SA)
Greensburg, Kansas - Tornadoes killed at least seven people and levelled most of this southwest Kansas town, a state official said on Saturday. Rescuers with dogs searched door to door for survivors.
The dead include six in Kiowa County, where Greensburg is located, and one in nearby Stafford County, said Sharon Watson, a spokesperson for the Kansas Adjutant General's Department.
The tornado that struck Greensburg late on Friday damaged about 90% of the town about 177km west of Wichita, City Administrator Steve Hewitt said on Saturday.
Dazed residents walked the streets, looking for loved ones and taking in the sight of crumbled buildings and smashed cars in the town of some 1 600 people.
Much of downtown was destroyed, along with City Hall, the high school and the junior high school, Hewitt said.
"I don't think we have a business left downtown," he said. A mandatory evacuation was ordered, he said.
Emergency personnel and search and rescue teams raced to Greensburg from throughout southwest Kansas. Trained dogs accompanied law enforcement officers who searched house to house for anyone trapped or injured.
"There is still a possibility we do not have all of the people accounted for in that town," Watson said. "That is something we will be working feverishly to do over the next several hours."
Hewitt said at least 50 people had been taken to hospitals, 16 in critical condition, but said exact numbers were impossible to come by. Rescuers pulled about 30 people from the basement of a partially collapsed hospital early on Saturday, but most of them had minor injuries, Watson said.
A storm front spawned tornadoes along a line stretching northeast from Greensburg through central Kansas. Three small tornadoes also touched down on Friday in rural southwestern Illinois, but officials said there were no reports of injury or damage. Two tornadoes struck in Oklahoma, damaging some structures but injuring no one, officials said.
Larry Ruthi, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Dodge City, said the storm system spawned at least three significant tornadoes, including the one that hit Greensburg. He said there were likely other smaller twisters.
The weather service described the tornado that struck Greensburg as a "wedge", an especially broad and tall formation. Frederick Kruse of the weather service's Dodge City office said there were initial reports that the tornado was at least three-quarters of a mile wide on the ground.
Watson said the state fire marshal's office dispatched hazardous materials teams because railroad cars in Kiowa County had overturned. She said the National Guard was sending 40 troops to provide security around Greensburg.
- AP
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