permits to go back to their home. we counted 520 people waiting in li line, four people were giving their permits. in some cases their houses were completely destroyed. in other cases the houses were fine, they just wanted to go back. they had to wait for hours. we re seeing a lack of organization. certainly emergency officials have a lot to deal with but they could be handling the situation more compassionately. at least that s the way we feel right now. this is gary tuchman, cnn in joplin, missouri. you re watching world one live from london. i m zain vergee. thank you for joining us. we want to give you another look at the dramatic tornado pictures. these were shot in the state of oklahoma. as for the people in that car, they are very brave and very lucky. this is world one on cnn.
basement. now she was not hurt. she had gone to a family member s home and i talked with her just last hour about the ordeal. i guess i kept thinking what it would have been like for my brothers had they not been able to find me. and what it would have been like for them. i m glad they found me because i didn t want to do that to them. the latest now on the effort to find people still unaccounted for in joplin. within just the past half-hour, authorities have now updated their figures. they now say that 232 people are unaccounted for. our cnn s brian todd is joining us from joplin. first of all, brian, explain to us about this number. because before authorities were saying it was something like 1,500. now it s been dramatically lowered. how did that happen? reporter: well, suzanne, it s been kind of a touch-and-go process as far as that particular number that was first floated out, 1,500. that was floated out by a local
sarah, mike! this is moments after the tornado slammed joplin. and aaron cox and his fiancee were searching for his sister and her fiancee. they were found. they are alive and well. and aaron and sarah cox join us from joplin, missouri. thank you very much, first of all, for sharing this with us and for being here. aaron, can you tell us what was going on through your mind at that point, you picked up the cam remarks you were running to your sister s house. what possessed you to roll the tape? we didn t know how bad it was when we first left the house. i was staying with my parents it wasn t that bad. a few overturned trees. so i took the camera just to see what we could see. but the farther we got into the city the worse and worse it got. by time we had to leave the car because of all the debris and
see right here, afterwards, really kind of fell apart and crumbled in many parts. over towards the area to the east of the hospital that was actually joplin high school. a lot of people go to high schools and schools for actually shelter when there are tornado warnings and watches out there. and this image right here, showing you some of the damage left behind. anywhere in tan, this is the total damage area. you see more green here, that s the moderate area. down towards the south, you can see the buildings, cul-de-sacs and streets. this is why it s so costly across parts of the u.s. andrew? wind speeds of what, around 200 miles an hour plus. you re talking 322 kph, 200. that s what we saw for the tornado that pushed through joplin, ef-5, the highest. extraordinary. jen, thanks very much for that. you re welcome. jen delgado at the weather
been so much tragedy. i can only congratulate you, jeremiah. what a remarkable escape. what a lucky man you are. i know you know that and you ve been very humble in this interview. thank you very much for joining me. yes, sir, thank you very much. the whole region s bracing itself for more storms tonight. tornado s already been spotted near midtown memphis. cnn s meteorologist jacqui jeras is in joplin, missouri. jacqui, we just did the extraordinary interview with this guy whose trailer was tossed in the air. what is happening right now? well, all the thunderstorms have moved east of where we are, so that s the good news for the folks here in joplin. but the threat of tornados is still out there tonight. we ve had at least 60 tornado reports so far for today. with several confirmed touchdowns. the good news is so far there s been no major damage and no