close, he s a joplin resident and lived through the storm. he joins us on the phone to talk about that. so when the storm was coming in, where were you? hi, carol. we had just got through grocery shopping and i ve got a nephew who has a nice basement, so we drove over there and, you know, when the sirens went off, we knew that it was coming, because we could see the hail, and when the straight-line winds hit, you know, i worked in tv for ten years, so i knew what i was witnessing. what i was witnessing was all of that rush of wind being sucked into the vortex. so we knew it was close. and it felt like it was a lot closer and we were two miles away. but then later on, we were able to drive down and rescue some people. and we re all in shock. well, tell me about that. so you re in the basement, the storm passes over, and i would assume that the house you are in
you talk to national guard commanders, what have we seen lately? you know, the floods in the midwest along the mississippi. constant brush fires out in the west. tornadoes in the southeast. it seems like we re always talking about the guard being activated. a lot of times they are starting to ask for federal reimbursement. it doesn t always come. there s an effort to try and get the states to pay for it, but this is a growing issue, as you say, carol, with the state budget so stretched. who is going to pay for all this crisis cleanup? barbara starr, many thanks. live from the pentagon. some of the most dramatic video of the tornado was shot by someone right in the middle of it. isaac duncan caught the sheer terror about 20 customers trapped in a joplin convenience store when the tornado hit. they ll join me in the next hour. at bayer, we ve been relieving pain for over 100 years. and today, we re re-inventing aspirin for pain relief. with new extra-strength bayer advanced aspirin.
of course, you can see the pictures there, just devastating. and of course, what you ve seen, of course, cars being thrown. the devastation, of course, even in the building welcomes and the ground being ripped up. so tornado warnings in the old days used to come out after a tornado was spotted. what good did that do? right now on average, we have a 13-minute in advance warning. what has been unbelievable and so remarkable, carol, is in 1974, that was really the tornado outbreak super cell, storms that really set the benchmark. with over 300 people killed. but you wouldn t think in this day and age you would see that, of course, with the 30-minute lead time. and in the early 90s, the advent of doppler radar, meteorologists can look inside the radar and see what s happening. so what s most surprising? the fatalities and numbers this these big areas. i think, sadly, one of the things that happened, meteorologists can hand out all the warnings they want, and the tornado sirens can go of
moneygall, along the motorway. and basically it s going to be a rest stop for food and fuel. and among the shops will be a little john s pizzeria that will be at the barack obama plaza. so papa john s it will be a papa john s pizza at the barack obama plaza. here you have an american pizza franchise serving quasi-italian food in ireland. doesn t get any better than this, carol. i think the guinness part s the best in my book. a question, though. we you is the president and mrs. obama in the middle of the crowd in moneygall. that was amazing stuff. reporter: uaw. you don t get to see the president do that very often, any president, for security reasons, obviously. i can tell you some of our producers who have been on the ground and here in dublin, there s obviously been intense security in the days ahead leading up to this. the town is in a virtual lockdown, if you will. it s safe for the president.
hurt. that s right. joplin has had tornadoes before, sirens did go off in time, they had ample warning, but even in tuscaloosa, over 300 people in the alabama area killed only over two weeks ago and they had sirens go off too. this has only so much you can do. and a lot of people there lived in trailers. so where can you go? right. and the topography and the quality of the homes being built in that specific and minute area, which is so hard to pinpoint. alison kosik is as the new york stock exchange. alison, is there any indication yet of the economic losses these record number of tornados have caused? carol, before i get to the economic worries in joplin, just want the mention, we are watching a sell-off here in the markets. the dow right now down 155 points on new worries about debt problems in greece, italy, and spain. all right. back to joplin. of course, if the past is any indication, carol, the economic losses in joplin are expected to