Tornado kills at least 89, leaves 'total devastation' in Missouri town

And speaking of Mother nature, She sure can be a bitch!

This has got to go down as the worst tornado season ever, bigger, deadlier, just miserable.

The Los Angeles times
Joplin, Mo.—
A powerful tornado slammed into Joplin, Mo., on Sunday, killing at least 89 people as it ripped the top off a hospital, sheared parts of the roof off a high school and turned homes and major retail stores into heaps of rubble.

City manager Mark Rohr announced the death toll before dawn Monday outside the wreckage of the hospital, confirming the fears that officials had expressed earlier. The twister cut a nearly six-mile path through the middle of the southwestern Missouri town of 50,000 on a day that a series of turbulent storms swept through the Midwest.

"It's total devastation," Gov. Jay Nixon said Sunday as he dispatched the National Guard and emergency rescue teams in a race to find survivors.