so it has been a very long time since we ve seen big cities get hit by such big tornadoes. those big tornadoes are out there every year. they are there. there are f-4s. there are ef-5s every year out there. most of the time they just get range planned. places that don t have a lot of towns. we don t report on them. people are still injured and it s one and two. when you get tornadoes like we ve seen, the size that we ve seen, rolling through metropolises, rolling through cities, where there is video, it becomes a big story. this year we ve had a colder than normal air outbreak arrive to the south, bumping into warm air. the warm air is always in the south. now, warm air doesn t necessarily cause more tornadoes. there aren t tornadoes in the tropics. warm air doesn t come from the
so an incredible situation unfolding in joplin, missouri. unfortunately, it s very reminiscent of what happened a few weeks ago in northern alabama. absolutely. to our viewers, here is the reality of it. 24 fatalities reported so far. widespread damage across the country from a tornado touching down. they don t know how many fatalities, how many injuries in all of this. people there being called the walking wounded. as jackie said, evacuating a hospital. they set up mobile facility. missouri department of transportation is saying i-44 is closed down because of damage. and here is what we re hearing from the governor of missouri. jay nixon. he said significant law enforcement assets and the national guard are now being deployed, now being deployed. and so we re going to try to get all of those people on the ground. when you hear the national guard being deployed, chad myers, our meteorologist who is joining us by phone, you know this is big trouble. well, you just don t ha
and then just a short time ago, a storm chaser, his name is steve polly, caught out in the middle of this driving on the interstate. he said he didn t think he was going to make it. he said it was touch and go for a while. these videos he took at a gas station. listen. yes, it is. north kansas. that s where we want to get. all right. our jacqui jeras, our meteorologist, joins us now. jacqui, some officials in missouri reporting that there are at least as many as 24 fatalities from this tornado that touched down, and they are saying there s widespread damage across the city s south side. that s right, don. it was just an incredible tornado that touched down just before 6:00 local time there. a multi-vortex tornado touched down in downtown joplin and just stripped a path of destruction through the city. there are many buildings which have been damaged. homes have been flattened. trees have been broken off and stripped from their bark, and unfortunately, we re concerned