From KOAM's website, one of the local TV stations in Joplin:
http://tinyurl.com/3dk4bt6
Updated at 10:45PM CST: At least 25 confirmed dead at the command post.
Updated 8:45 PM CST: KOAM photographer Crystal Albright was at 15th and Range Line. She says the Burger King is gone. King's Palace was catching on fire at the time.
A tractor trailer was turned over near the 15th Street Walmart. Plaza apartments and storage facilities behind the Walmart at 15th street also received damage.
Updated 8:40 PM CST: KOAM Chief Videographer Aaron Thompson was at 20th and Rhode Island and says damage at Commerce Bank, Papa Johns. Damage going east is "worse and worse". Says he was unable to get to Range Line from that direction.
"I didn't know where I was... street signs are just gone".
Updated 7:45 PM CST: Joplin High School has been severely damaged. The graduation was today, but was held at Missouri Southern.
Posted 7:40 PM CST: Tornadoes touch down in Joplin leaving a path of destruction throughout the city.
Power lines and phone lines are down. Communications are difficult.
Starting at 20th and Rangeline a tornado destroyed countless buildings throughout the area.
At the 15th and Rangeline Walmart ambulances lined the street as emergency rescue officials across the Four-States have responded to rescue hundreds of residents trapped inside the building.
St. John's hospital was also hit hard by the tornado. One resident living nearly 45-miles away from the hospital says his yard is now full of debris from the hospital-- medical supplies and x-rays.
Officials say the hospital is severely damaged. Chunks of the building were taken out and windows were blown out.
Eastbound and westbound I-44 is closed at mile marker 18 near Joplin due to overturned tractor trailers during severe weather.
