four-mile-long path of destruction. at one point it may have been three quarters of a mile wide. cnn s tom foreman is joining wuss a closer look at this monster. share with us some of these images. reporter: wolf, tough look at it in the air to get a sense of the size. zoom in the path, stop it, close enough. we measured in here, we got a little more than five miles overall. atlantic overall layout of joplin and look how big this swath is that was cut through it. we will zoom it all the way in now, i will take you to that hospital brian was talking about so much there because that is a good place to start, big complex here, employs about 1700 people. you saw the damage. they had more than 180 patients in the hospital at that time. come in and show details of this picture. you can see what happened there and you can also see how many people were evacuated, more than 200 there. they did not have all the workers there at that time, obviously, 1700, but still several hundred. let s move
news just coming into the situation room right now, lisa sylvester is back, monitoring the latest development and other top stories. lisa? palestinian authority prime minister is in a texas hospital after suffering a heart attack. doctors say he felt chest pains yesterday while visiting austin for his son s grant situation for his son s graduation from the university of texas. they found a blocked artery which they treated and he is said to be in good condition. gas prices have dropped about nine cents in the last two weeks. aaa says gas is now about $3.48 on average, it had soared after the middle east unrest, the refinery flooding and out ans. and outdoor smoking ban signed into law by mayor michael
we had 4 or 500 first responders from about 100-mile radius this morning, first thing to get out and start a search and rescue. every once in a while, you will hear a siren and we kind of have a hopeful look in our eye when we hear that we hope they got a report of a survivor they are going after to get. you are standing in front of that hospital devastated, virtually destroyed, i m sure you have been there over the years on many occasions. did the folks man arrange the patients, the doctors, the nurses, did they manage to find safety there or unfortunately, some of them die? i don t know. there were several death notis e hospital, i don t know who they were. there was a nurse that reported that one gentleman was pulled out the sixth story window and just it was kind of like the movie twister, i guess, where the devastation is beyond description. we saw a car today wrapped around a tree and we could not tell if it was a van, a pickup, a car, completely bent around the tree. it
so they are really doing the right thing, the governor declared it a disaster area early on, called in national guard that has been very beneficial to the folks here in joplin. finally, congressman, where were you when this tornado hit? we were at it was my daughter s 25th birthday and we were over at some friend s house. there was two or three that have birthdays at the same time and i had just arrived over there and then i started getting tweets and texts about the storm and, of course, turned on the tv. i live about 70 miles from here in springfield and this s where i was. we came over this morning, we didn t cry tricome over in the dark last night but at the crack of dawn we came up and came here in daylight and just trying to do what little we can to try to help the people here and let them know that there are people coming to their aid. so your town of springfield was okay? yes, uh-huh. we had debris in springfield from this hospital. we had x-rays end up 60, 70 miles f
board, brick and concrete. reverend cj campbell informs his house, huddled in a hallway with his sister as the tornado tore through. entire 1800-foot square house completely collapsed around us within 60 seconds. reporter: they made it out, but the house is a total loss. at st. john s regional medical center, the twisters a wrath was almost surreal. look at this helipad. this part is m empty, but if you just move to your left over here, you are going to see the wreckage of a helicopter that was just tossed on its side and twisted around. look at the wreckage here. the front of it is just taken off. and there s the cockpit. look at the rotors, completely gone. sergio gomez was working admissions at the hospital when the tornado hit. kind of an exposed part of the hospital. how did you make it out? honestly, i wasn t really worrying about getting out it mostly getting all the patients to a safer room. how do you feel about losing this car? you were very attached to it?