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what s happening. that s ahead. we will have the latest on this developing story in a few minutes from now. president obama is back at the white house of a spending several hours in joplin, missouri. it was exactly a week ago that an f-5 tornado ripped through the city killing people in minutes. 5:41 central time there was a moment of silence marked by the precise instant that tornado hit. our dan traveled with the president to joplin and dan, a tough job for the president to try to lift spirits of a being amongest the people but seeing this disaster first-hand. this is a president who has had to do this quite a bit lately. other natural disasters as well. the president as you know last week was overseas among other things building relationships with european partners. throughout that time, white house aid said the president was getting updates on the situation here in joplin. today the president got to see the devastation up close. before touching down, air force ....
reporter: battle hardened storm chasers in awe of nature s power. oh, my gosh. this is awful. dude, the trees are debarked. reporter: residents running for every anywhere they could. everybody get down, all on the ground. reporter: in a crowded convenience store, some 20 people hunkering down in a darkened commercial refrigerator. can we go in the cooler? [ screaming ] go! oh, dear heaven. god! reporter: at the same time a security camera in a nearby frozen yogurt shop catches the chaos. workers moving customers to the back and then everything goes flying. the massive tornado mowing down everything in its path. people s lives churned up and spewed out. here s the gas station that we were at. reporter: this is the convenience store now. this would have been where we walked in. reporter: all across the city, thousands and thousands of people in shock, taking the first steps on the long road to recovery. make no mistake, joplin, missouri, will ....
go! oh, dear heaven. god! reporter: at the same time a security camera in a nearby frozen yogurt shop catches the chaos. workers moving customers to the back and then everything goes flying. the massive tornado mowing down everything in its path. people s lives churned up and spewed out. here s the gas station that we were at. reporter: this is the convenience store now. this would have been where we walked in. reporter: all across the city, thousands and thousands of people in shock, taking the first steps on the long road to recovery. make no mistake, joplin, missou missouri, will rebuild, but it will never be the same. hello and welcome to this one-hour cnn special report on the joplin, missouri, tornado and other deadly storms. a twister s fury: in the path of destruction. i m drew griffin. just hours from now president obama will be on the ground in joplin for his first look at what s left of this devastated city. 142 people have lost their lives. ....
that is a monster tornado. reporter: battle hardened storm chasers in awe of nature s power. oh, my gosh. this is awful. dude, the trees are debarked. reporter: residents running for every anywhere they could. everybody get down, all on the ground. reporter: in a crowded convenience store, some 20 people hunkering down in a darkened commercial refrigerator. can we go in the cooler? [ screaming ] go! oh, dear heaven. god! reporter: at the same time a security camera in a nearby frozen yogurt shop catches the chaos. workers moving customers to the back and then everything goes flying. the massive tornado mowing down everything in its path. people s lives churned up and spewed out. here s the gas station that we were at. reporter: this is the convenience store now. this would have been where we walked in. reporter: all across the city, thousands and thousands of we have indication that people in shock, taking the there have been 142 human fi ....
There and i m just i m hoping and praying to god they re okay. reporter: turned out they were buried in that rubble. so, we are now about seven miles to the east of where the tornado first touched down. as you can see, there s still lots of damage here, so those original estimates of six miles on the ground are way too conservative. this is where jim and stacy richards lived. stacy survived the tornado by hanging onto two dog crates as her home collapsed around and on top of her. that was awful. laying there, screaming and screaming and screaming. yeah, it was horrible. reporter: this week they got their insurance settlement so they can rebuild. how far east did it go? i m not sure. i know there s damage over on the next mile section. reporter: we re now almost exactly 12 miles due east of where we started this journey and where the tornado first touched down. this is the area where locals say the tornado actually lifted off the ground, meaning its path ....