Rescue Efforts In Joplin Hampered By More Storms

Craig Day, News On 6

JOPLIN, Missouri – The tornado that tore through Joplin, Missouri killed at least 116 people and destroyed 2,000 homes and businesses. Winds were close to 200 miles per hour.

5/23/2011 Related Story: Death Toll Climbs To 116 In Joplin, Missouri Tornado

Rescuers keep finding survivors among the rubble. Seventeen people have been pulled from debris. But those efforts were hampered by more storms Monday.

It's a desperate race against time. Volunteers are removing boards and concrete blocks and a lifetime's worth of belongings trying to find a woman who may be trapped in the rubble of her home.

"Everybody was asking, ‘what is going on?' And we were like ‘we're trying to find somebody because we think they're still in the house' and everybody just started showing up. So it's an amazing show of support," Penny Loyd said.

The woman is unaccounted for. There are no records of her being rescued. No one has seen her. It's believed she was in her home as the EF-4 tornado was bearing down on Joplin, destroying a third of the town.

5/23/2011 Related Story: A Third Of Joplin Gone After Tornado Ravages City

"All we knew is that she was on the second floor and she was in her bed, because she was confined to bed," Loyd said.

When the devastation is this widespread, it's hard for many people to believe what seems to be so inconceivable.

"It's just pure devastation, you just can't believe it," Jim Cook said.

The sense of loss, the disbelief, the scope of the damage is overwhelming.

5/23/2011 Related Story: How To Help Joplin Residents Devastated By Sunday's Deadly Tornado

Rescuers never found that woman in the debris.