and good morning. welcome to today on a monday morning. i m matt lauer. i m meredith vieira. your heart goes out to everyone in joplin when you see these devastating images of what the tornado did. when we arrived yesterday we knew it was a bad story. we heard 25 to 30 people had died in the last hour. the number has gone to 89 and could go higher. they are saying 25 to 30% of the city is damaged by the tornado. among the buildings that took a direct hit, the town s hospital. doctors and nurses had just moments to scramble patients into hallways. to give you a sense of the twister s power, x-rays and medical records from inside the hospital building have now been found more than 60 miles away. missouri s governor declared a state of emergency and activated the national guard. entire neighborhoods have been turned into debris fields littered with the splintered remains of cars, homes and trees. this morning, more severe weather could be on the way. we ll get right
and good morning. welcome to today. 7:00 a.m. on the west coast on a monday. i m matt lauer. i m meredith vieira. your heart goes out to everyone in joplin affected by that monster tornado. the skies have turned ominous yet again this morning as another powerful storm system rolls in. what a few hours it has been. when we first got to work this morning, we were told the storm was severe but about 25 or 30 people had been killed. that number quickly rose to over 89, and as you can see that, weather is not going to help any in the recovery or search efforts. among the buildings that took a direct hit on sunday, the town s hospital, st. john s. doctors and you are ins had just moments to scramble patients into hallways. to give you a sense of the twister s power, x-rays and medical records from inside that hospital building have now been found more than 60 miles away. president obama called missouri s governor a short time ago to offer his condolences, while promising th