response, of course, on the ground in joplin. he s talking to us this morning and we re joined from joplin this morning by the city s mayor, mike woolston. thank you both for joining us this morning under, i understand, quite trying circumstances. craig, i understand you had a chance to speaks to the white house this morning. what have they pledged to do in terms of helping joplin? well, i talked to the president this morning. yesterday he declared this area a disaster area, adding it to the existing tornado response here in missouri. so we ve activated the assistance for individuals and families who can start registering at fee may at 1-800-621 fema and emergency assistance to support the state and local response to this disaster. let me ask you about the scene on the ground and trying to find people in the rubble. i know that emergency response are going door to door. are you still pulling people out of this wreckage of this town alive? we pulled a number of people
no! boston goaltenders tim thomas spectacular stick save. the bruins lead the series 3-2. they re one win away from the nhl finals. the minnesota twins honored number three, harm an kildbrew, after the passing last week, and jim them jim thome cranked t right. not bad for his first game off the disabled list. but wait, there s more. another home run. home run 592 and 593. seattle won over the twins. nevertheless, great to see him back and healthy. he always looks like a cartoon character to me. he is. a hucking guy. a distinctive face. let s begin with a look at the top stories. rescuers in joplin, missouri, are not giving up hope. they think more tornado survivors can be found. they ve pulled 17 people from the rubble since yesterday. sundays s monster 21st head left 117 people dead at least. and of course the city s a
hundreds of police, fire fighters, national guardsmen and other volunteers are fighting what was dangerous weather yesterday and last night and will be later on today searching for survivors. take a look at this monster tornado that flattened joplin. we got lightning. go back. it s getting big, big, big. that s huge. i have it on video. all on video. probably three quarts of a mile wide, at its widest, traveling six miles, perhaps, carving a path of destruction, destroying 2,000 homes and buildings. no way to know really how many people may still be buried dead or alive in this field around me. the smell of gas is everywhere from the cars that have been crumpled up like tin cans. the danger far from over because
city through wichita. that pink area means that there s a 30% chance of seeing a tornado touch down within 25 miles of any point in that area. that s a big deal. notice that joplin is around the 10 to 15% mark, moderate to slight risk. through new york, d.c., boston, this is a very soupy atmosphere. that is where the stalled stationary boundary is and thunderstorms will fire up again and some will be potentially severe. on to the next graphic, high temperatures for today, kind of toasty in memphis. muggy and 82 as far north as new york city. that s where you get fuel for the fire there and then 92 degrees in dallas. we didn t have the cold front come through and blast all that heat and humidity out. that s why we have the thunderstorms. as far as frequency of tornadoes that we typically see month to month, may usually the big month. that s a scary thought considering what we had during the month of april. april this year was an anomaly as far as the record setter, but may is typically
been writing in. words of support, delia from los angeles offering prayers. others, a new york schoolteacher, jonathan. and people offering help any way. they don t know what it is they can do to help but they want to let them know they re supporting. another one that people have been using is the survivor s page. this is joplin, missouri, tornado survivor page. where people can say things how can i check on the state of st. john s medical center. has baby sky her been found? somebody inquiring about that. syria waters writing in no, three hours ago. there are many others talking ability who they re looking for, where they were, looking for randy, his truck was found at home depot. please call with a phone number. this is when it gets heartbreaking knowing these people still have no information on where their loved ones may be and they re reaching out on social networking sites to try to find out. another one, because in some of these cases and we can still hold out hope that perhaps p