and i understand it was a very populous area where that tornado hit, major businesses in the area as well. health care providers are among big ones, suzanne, in joplin, missouri. st. john s regional medical center is 1 of 2 hospitals in this area and st. john s was hit directly by the tornado. city officials are reporting significant damage. cnn affiliate kshb said there were fires throughout the hospital after the tornado hit. carl, is this the first the city s been hit by a tornado? no, they saw something like this back in the 1970s. in fact. it was on may 5th, 1971, the city was hit by an f-3 rtornado killing one man and injuring almost 50 people. the tornado that went through last night is considered to be much larger from that one from the 70s. you heard me mention f-3, as a reminder, meteorologists use the enhanced fujita scale. the lowest is 65 to 85 miles per
but those voices leave no doubt. 20 terrified strangers huddled inside a store s industrial-sized refrigerator. outside a tornado is ripping apart joplin, missouri. and take a listen again we re good. we re good. we re good. [ screams ] [ wind sounds ] jesus. je jesus, jesus. i love everyone. i love everyone, man. i love you. jesus, jesus, jesus. heavenly father. this is joplin this morning. after daylight revealed the devastation, the tornado cut through the center of town killing at least 89 people, taking out homes, businesses, a hospital, a high school. jaime green is a photographer for a kansas newspaper. just listen. we huddled down. was my friend and i and her 6-year-old daughter. we huddled down over her daughter up against a wall, against an office building. our only other option would have been to throw a bench through the glass window which we actually thought of but we didn t we decided not to. it is unbelievable. authorities in joplin expect to