Swollen Missouri River spurs new evacuations

The Missouri River broke through levees at two points early Sunday, causing more resident evacuations.NEW: Official raises concern about projected high water flowsAbout 250 people are affected by the latest orders and advisoriesA local official in northwestern Missouri says the river has already topped a 1993 record

(CNN) -- The swollen Missouri River washed over and punched through levees in northwestern Missouri early Sunday, spurring authorities to urge about 250 nearby residents to leave their homes.

The river breached levees at two points overnight and overtopped them at two others near Corning, Missouri, about 100 miles north of Kansas City, the Holt County Sheriff's Department reported. Most residents had already cleared out due to voluntary evacuation calls, but authorities went door-to-door early Sunday to order nearly 30 people who remained to leave, the agency told CNN.

Upriver, evacuation advisories went out for 200 to 250 people in the town of Watson and other areas west of Interstate 29, said Mark Manchester, the deputy emergency management director in Atchison County. Water was sloshing over the levees "at a pretty good clip" Sunday morning and had already topped the county's previous record mark, set in 1993, he said.

"We're in uncharted waters here," Manchester said.

The Missouri was more than 11.5 feet over flood stage at nearby Brownville, according to National Weather Service data.

And across the state line in Hamburg, Iowa, where two levees failed last week, the river was expected to crest at 10 feet over flood stage in the coming days, Fremont County Emergency Management chief Mike Crecelius said.

Crecelius said the river has been over flood stage since late April, and that forecasters are projecting river flows of 150,000 cubic feet (1.1 million gallons) per second through August.

"They're not designed for this amount of pressure for this length of time," Crecelius said. "They've never been tested like this."

Heavy rainfall in Montana and North Dakota, combined with melting snow from the Rocky Mountains, have sent the Missouri surging downstream, according to the National Weather Service. The 6 to 12 inches of rainfall in the upper Missouri basin in the past few weeks is nearly a normal year's worth, and runoff from the mountain snowpack is 140% of normal, the agency says.

CNN's Matt Smith and Divina Mims contributed to this report.

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Obama to head to tornado-slammed Missouri

(CNN) -- President Barack Obama plans to travel to the tornado-damaged state of Missouri on Sunday.

A tornado that cut through the city of Joplin on Sunday was the single deadliest twister to ever hit American soil since the National Weather Service began keeping records 61 years ago. At least 118 people have died, Gov. Jay Nixon said Tuesday.

"We are going to do absolutely everything we can to make sure they recover," said Obama, in England on Tuesday to meet with Britain's royal family and huddle with top politicians.

Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate and Deputy Administrator Richard Serino have traveled to Missouri to work with state and local officials, Obama said.

In addition, Obama said he and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano have spoken with Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon to offer federal resources.

"We can make sure that the families and communities upended by these storms have everything they need to pull through," Obama said.

"I know that a lot of people are wondering how they'll get through the coming days or months or even years, but I want everybody in Joplin, everybody in Missouri, everybody in Minnesota, everybody across the Midwest to know that we are here for you," the president said.

"The American people are by your side. We're going to stay there until every home is repaired, until every neighborhood is rebuilt, until every business is back on its feet."

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Missouri tornado deadliest in decades

Sunday's tornado kills 11 at a nursing homeThe death toll rises to 118, the governor saysA first responder struck by lightning is in ICU, the governor says President Obama plans to visit Missouri SundayPiers Morgan has more on the recovery efforts at 9 p.m ET Tuesday. At 10 ET on "AC360?," Anderson Cooper brings firsthand accounts of surviving the powerful tornado. Also, did you experience the tornado? Send your photos, videos or stories.

Joplin, Missouri (CNN) -- Ten residents and a staff member at a Joplin, Missouri, nursing home were among scores killed by Sunday evening's tornado, a company official said Tuesday.

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Two other staffers at Greenbriar Nursing Home are in critical condition at a hospital, said the home's vice president, Bill Mitchell.

Of the other 79 residents of the home, all but one are accounted for, he said. Only rubble remains and survivors have been moved to temporary housing or are with family members.

The tornado that struck Joplin killed 118 people, authorities said, making it the deadliest single U.S. tornado since modern record-keeping began more than 60 years ago.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said the number of deaths is expected to rise as rescuers find more bodies in the rubble.

A 1953 twister in Flint, Michigan, killed 116 people, according to the National Weather Service.

"It just looks like a war zone," said Eddie Atwood in a CNN iReport from the scene. From where he stood, Atwood said, "You could see all the way to the horizon because all the houses and all the trees were just leveled."

"I was walking down Main Street. Everything was so razed over, it was disorienting because some of the streets -- you couldn't even tell where you were at. After living in Joplin all my life it was like living in the twilight zone."

Joplin may not be in the clear yet as far as weather goes: The National Weather Service warned there is a chance of another tornado outbreak -- with the peak time between 4 p.m. and midnight Tuesday -- over a wide swath including parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Nebraska and Missouri.

The severe weather and tornado probability is listed as "moderate" in Joplin. Officials in Joplin tested their tornado sirens at 10:30 a.m.

President Barack Obama announced he will visit the region on Sunday. "We are going to do absolutely everything we can to make sure they recover," he said during a visit to London. Obama added that he will let people know "the whole country is going to be behind them."

"We are here for you. We're going to stay by you," Obama said.

Richard Serino, the second-highest-ranking official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Monday that Obama had issued a disaster declaration -- expediting the dispersal of federal resources to the area -- while vowing that "we are going to be here for the long haul."

City Manager Mark Rohr told reporters Tuesday that more than 40 agencies were on the ground in the southwest Missouri city, and two first responders were struck by lightning Monday as they braved relentless rain and high wind searching for survivors.

"One, fortunately, walked away from it; the other one's still in the hospital, last I heard," Joplin Emergency Management Director Keith Stammer said on CNN's "American Morning."

Nixon said the person in the hospital is in the intensive care unit.

Several hundred people were injured in the tornado, and about 1,500 people are still unaccounted for. But "when we open up the area and start letting them come back in ... that number of unaccounted for will start to dwindle," Stammer said.

Many of those 1,500 have scattered because of tornado damage and communication problems.

People who have left the area should call their families and the dispatch center to let authorities know they are OK, Stammer said.

"We are hoping that by the time the sun goes down tonight, we'll be done with our primary and our secondary search and rescue effort," he added.

Joplin Fire Chief Mitch Randles said the second search basically follows the tornado's path. "We're searching every structure that's been damaged or destroyed in a more in-depth manner," he said. "The third search is going to be similar to that. And then the fourth search through will be with the search-and-rescue dogs."

Authorities encouraged people to use the website safeandwell.org, operated by the Red Cross, for updates on loved ones.

Some residents said the tornado struck suddenly.

"It all happened so fast," Rachael Neff said on CNN's "American Morning" Tuesday. "It seemed like forever but it happened very fast."

"We had a few minutes' warning. I've never taken any of the warnings seriously but something snapped in me and I put blankets and pillows in the bathroom. We were running to the bathroom. You could hear the home shaking, everything busting out."

Neff, her fiance, Zac Bronson, and her toddler prayed, screamed and survived.

"We've had a tremendous support system. Our employers, friends and family have been more than helpful and we move on and rebuild. We just start another life. We started a new life," Bronson said.

By Monday night, officials found 17 people alive. But many, including Will Norton, remain missing.

The 18-year-old was driving home from his high school graduation Sunday when the tornado destroyed the Hummer H3 he and his father were in.

"We were in a separate car. We were about 30 seconds in front of them, one block," Norton's sister, Sara, told CNN. "My dad called and he said, 'Open the garage door.' ... And then I just heard him say, 'Pull over, Will. Pull over.' And then they started flipping."

"My dad said -- when my dad gained consciousness, he said that he saw my brother -- his seat belt snapped and he was ejected through the sunroof," she added.

The family has been tracking a "Help Find Will Norton" Facebook page and pursuing leads on his whereabouts.

Norton's aunt, Tracey, said the family received a tip that the teen was listed on a local hospital's emergency room roster -- but she's not sure where he is now.

"They transferred him, but we're not sure where he was transferred," the aunt said. "When he was transferred, he was alive. We don't know anything other than that."

The tornado that carved through the city of about 50,000 on Sunday is the deadliest to hit American soil since the National Weather Service began keeping records 61 years ago. The National Weather Service notes seven deadlier twisters, but says those took place "before the years of comprehensive damage surveys," so they may have been the result of multiple tornadoes.

But the Weather Service does say that the Great Tri-State Tornado of 1925, which tore across southeast Missouri, southern Illinois and southwest Indiana, killed 695 people -- "a record for a single tornado."

Last month, two fatal twisters struck Alabama. One hit Hackleburg and the town of Phil Campbell, killing 78 people, and another struck Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, killing 61.

With crews still sifting through rubble, the death toll could continue to climb.

"I think the more time that goes by, the more I feel sick about it," Sarah Hale, a lifelong Joplin resident, said Tuesday. "These people are cold and sick and stuck. As the days go on, and the death toll goes up, how many funerals are we going to go to?"

Joplin Mayor Mike Woolston said Monday night that his community hasn't given up.

"We hope that there are people alive. We have a number of apartment buildings, complexes that are almost completely flattened. So we anticipate finding more people, and hopefully we'll get there in time to find them alive," he said.

The tornado chewed through a densely populated area of the city, damaging or destroying 2,000 buildings, eliminating a high school and making a direct hit on one of the two hospitals in the city.

Based on preliminary estimates, the twister carried winds between 190 and 198 mph, National Weather Service director Jack Hayes said.

Woolston pledged not to let the tornado ruin his city.

"This is just not the type of community that's going to let a little F-4 tornado kick our ass. So we will rebuild, and we will recover."

CNN's Chuck Johnston, Joe Sutton, Greg Botelho, Holly Yan, Marleena Baldacci, Mike Pearson, Jessica Jordan, Sean Morris and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.

Click through to see the damage from the deadliest U.S. twister since modern record-keeping began.A security camera records damage from a Kansas tornado. CNN affiliate KTKA-TV in Topeka has more.The warnings seem almost ubiquitous today, but the word "tornado" used to be banned in weather forecasts.Joplin High seniors were wrapping up their graduation ceremony as the devastating storm started to roll in to town.Click through to see the number of tornadoes by year since 1950 and how many deaths resulted from these twisters.Survivors of the Joplin, Missouri, tornado describe their experiences riding out the deadly twister.Hundreds of firefighters, police officers, medics and more head into Joplin, Missouri, to search for survivors.After surviving the deadly storm, residents in Joplin, Missouri, brace for the possibility of more tornadoes.Today's five most popular stories

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Missouri tornado deadliest in decades

Sunday's tornado kills 11 at a nursing homeThe death toll rises to 118, the governor saysA first responder struck by lightning is in ICU, the governor says President Obama plans to visit Missouri SundayPiers Morgan has more on the recovery efforts at 9 p.m ET Tuesday. At 10 ET on "AC360?," Anderson Cooper brings firsthand accounts of surviving the powerful tornado. Also, did you experience the tornado? Send your photos, videos or stories.

Joplin, Missouri (CNN) -- Ten residents and a staff member at a Joplin, Missouri, nursing home were among scores killed by Sunday evening's tornado, a company official said Tuesday.

za

Two other staffers at Greenbriar Nursing Home are in critical condition at a hospital, said the home's vice president, Bill Mitchell.

Of the other 79 residents of the home, all but one are accounted for, he said. Only rubble remains and survivors have been moved to temporary housing or are with family members.

The tornado that struck Joplin killed 118 people, authorities said, making it the deadliest single U.S. tornado since modern record-keeping began more than 60 years ago.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said the number of deaths is expected to rise as rescuers find more bodies in the rubble.

A 1953 twister in Flint, Michigan, killed 116 people, according to the National Weather Service.

"It just looks like a war zone," said Eddie Atwood in a CNN iReport from the scene. From where he stood, Atwood said, "You could see all the way to the horizon because all the houses and all the trees were just leveled."

"I was walking down Main Street. Everything was so razed over, it was disorienting because some of the streets -- you couldn't even tell where you were at. After living in Joplin all my life it was like living in the twilight zone."

Joplin may not be in the clear yet as far as weather goes: The National Weather Service warned there is a chance of another tornado outbreak -- with the peak time between 4 p.m. and midnight Tuesday -- over a wide swath including parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Nebraska and Missouri.

The severe weather and tornado probability is listed as "moderate" in Joplin. Officials in Joplin tested their tornado sirens at 10:30 a.m.

President Barack Obama announced he will visit the region on Sunday. "We are going to do absolutely everything we can to make sure they recover," he said during a visit to London. Obama added that he will let people know "the whole country is going to be behind them."

"We are here for you. We're going to stay by you," Obama said.

Richard Serino, the second-highest-ranking official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Monday that Obama had issued a disaster declaration -- expediting the dispersal of federal resources to the area -- while vowing that "we are going to be here for the long haul."

City Manager Mark Rohr told reporters Tuesday that more than 40 agencies were on the ground in the southwest Missouri city, and two first responders were struck by lightning Monday as they braved relentless rain and high wind searching for survivors.

"One, fortunately, walked away from it; the other one's still in the hospital, last I heard," Joplin Emergency Management Director Keith Stammer said on CNN's "American Morning."

Nixon said the person in the hospital is in the intensive care unit.

Several hundred people were injured in the tornado, and about 1,500 people are still unaccounted for. But "when we open up the area and start letting them come back in ... that number of unaccounted for will start to dwindle," Stammer said.

Many of those 1,500 have scattered because of tornado damage and communication problems.

People who have left the area should call their families and the dispatch center to let authorities know they are OK, Stammer said.

"We are hoping that by the time the sun goes down tonight, we'll be done with our primary and our secondary search and rescue effort," he added.

Joplin Fire Chief Mitch Randles said the second search basically follows the tornado's path. "We're searching every structure that's been damaged or destroyed in a more in-depth manner," he said. "The third search is going to be similar to that. And then the fourth search through will be with the search-and-rescue dogs."

Authorities encouraged people to use the website safeandwell.org, operated by the Red Cross, for updates on loved ones.

Some residents said the tornado struck suddenly.

"It all happened so fast," Rachael Neff said on CNN's "American Morning" Tuesday. "It seemed like forever but it happened very fast."

"We had a few minutes' warning. I've never taken any of the warnings seriously but something snapped in me and I put blankets and pillows in the bathroom. We were running to the bathroom. You could hear the home shaking, everything busting out."

Neff, her fiance, Zac Bronson, and her toddler prayed, screamed and survived.

"We've had a tremendous support system. Our employers, friends and family have been more than helpful and we move on and rebuild. We just start another life. We started a new life," Bronson said.

By Monday night, officials found 17 people alive. But many, including Will Norton, remain missing.

The 18-year-old was driving home from his high school graduation Sunday when the tornado destroyed the Hummer H3 he and his father were in.

"We were in a separate car. We were about 30 seconds in front of them, one block," Norton's sister, Sara, told CNN. "My dad called and he said, 'Open the garage door.' ... And then I just heard him say, 'Pull over, Will. Pull over.' And then they started flipping."

"My dad said -- when my dad gained consciousness, he said that he saw my brother -- his seat belt snapped and he was ejected through the sunroof," she added.

The family has been tracking a "Help Find Will Norton" Facebook page and pursuing leads on his whereabouts.

Norton's aunt, Tracey, said the family received a tip that the teen was listed on a local hospital's emergency room roster -- but she's not sure where he is now.

"They transferred him, but we're not sure where he was transferred," the aunt said. "When he was transferred, he was alive. We don't know anything other than that."

The tornado that carved through the city of about 50,000 on Sunday is the deadliest to hit American soil since the National Weather Service began keeping records 61 years ago. The National Weather Service notes seven deadlier twisters, but says those took place "before the years of comprehensive damage surveys," so they may have been the result of multiple tornadoes.

But the Weather Service does say that the Great Tri-State Tornado of 1925, which tore across southeast Missouri, southern Illinois and southwest Indiana, killed 695 people -- "a record for a single tornado."

Last month, two fatal twisters struck Alabama. One hit Hackleburg and the town of Phil Campbell, killing 78 people, and another struck Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, killing 61.

With crews still sifting through rubble, the death toll could continue to climb.

"I think the more time that goes by, the more I feel sick about it," Sarah Hale, a lifelong Joplin resident, said Tuesday. "These people are cold and sick and stuck. As the days go on, and the death toll goes up, how many funerals are we going to go to?"

Joplin Mayor Mike Woolston said Monday night that his community hasn't given up.

"We hope that there are people alive. We have a number of apartment buildings, complexes that are almost completely flattened. So we anticipate finding more people, and hopefully we'll get there in time to find them alive," he said.

The tornado chewed through a densely populated area of the city, damaging or destroying 2,000 buildings, eliminating a high school and making a direct hit on one of the two hospitals in the city.

Based on preliminary estimates, the twister carried winds between 190 and 198 mph, National Weather Service director Jack Hayes said.

Woolston pledged not to let the tornado ruin his city.

"This is just not the type of community that's going to let a little F-4 tornado kick our ass. So we will rebuild, and we will recover."

CNN's Chuck Johnston, Joe Sutton, Greg Botelho, Holly Yan, Marleena Baldacci, Mike Pearson, Jessica Jordan, Sean Morris and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.

Click through to see the damage from the deadliest U.S. twister since modern record-keeping began.A security camera records damage from a Kansas tornado. CNN affiliate KTKA-TV in Topeka has more.The warnings seem almost ubiquitous today, but the word "tornado" used to be banned in weather forecasts.Joplin High seniors were wrapping up their graduation ceremony as the devastating storm started to roll in to town.Click through to see the number of tornadoes by year since 1950 and how many deaths resulted from these twisters.Survivors of the Joplin, Missouri, tornado describe their experiences riding out the deadly twister.Hundreds of firefighters, police officers, medics and more head into Joplin, Missouri, to search for survivors.After surviving the deadly storm, residents in Joplin, Missouri, brace for the possibility of more tornadoes.Today's five most popular stories

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Army Corps blows up levee to flood 130,000 acres in Missouri

(CNN) -- With a series of blasts that briefly illuminated the night sky like lightning, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began blowing up a Mississippi River levee overnight, flooding about 200 square miles of rich farmland in an effort to bring down historic river levels and spare the city of Cairo, Illinois and other communities.

The controversial decision to breach the Birds Point-New Madrid levee appeared to be working, said Col. Vernie Reichling, commander of the Corps' Memphis district.

The Ohio River at Cairo peaked at 61.72 feet just before the blast late Monday -- the highest level on record, according to the National Weather Service. By 6 a.m. Tuesday, it had fallen to 60.62 feet, according to river gauge readings provided by the Corps. Even that still exceeds the previous record of 59.5 feet set in 1937, according to Weather Service records.

The breach could cause river levels to fall by three to four feet over the next few days, according to Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh, commander of the Corps' Mississippi River Valley Division.

Without an intentional breach, authorities had warned of massive flooding that could wipe out the city of Cairo, which sits at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Cairo's mayor had already ordered the city's 2,800 residents to evacuate.

Missouri officials took the Corps to court over the plan, questioning the agency's authority to intentionally breach the levee. The state argued the flood waters would deposit silt on the some 130,000 acres of farmland that Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon described as "literally the most productive part of our continent."

The silt, he said, would take years to clear, causing long-lasting damage.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene in the case on Sunday, clearing the way for Walsh's decision to blow the levee.

Nixon estimated it will take tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars to recover from the intentional flooding.

Walsh said the fate of Cairo was just one of many factors in his decision, saying he hoped the move would alleviate issues throughout the Mississippi River system. Water levels and flooding have hit record highs in many spots, putting severe strains on systems meant to prevent uncontrolled floods and the resulting loss of life and property.

"Nobody has seen this type of water in the system," he said. "This is unprecedented."

He called the decision to inundate the farmland and about 100 homes "heart-wrenching."

"I've been involved with flooding for 10 years and it takes a long time to recover from something like this," he said.

The initial series of blasts happened late Monday. Engineers then set the second charges overnight and planned to detonate them early Tuesday. A third series of detonations will follow, according to the Corps.

The governors of Illinois and Missouri said authorities in both states are prepared for the blast and subsequent flooding, according to prepared statements.

"I urge Missourians to continue to cooperate fully with state, county and local law enforcement, as they have at every stage of this process," Nixon said. "Together, we will ensure that Missouri families stay safe in the coming days. And together, we will recover and rebuild."

A statement released by Quinn's office called the decision to breach the levee "an important step to ensure public safety as we respond to this crisis."

Even as the river was falling, Walsh did not rule out similar moves elsewhere along the Mississippi and its tributaries, saying the levee system is already under unprecedented pressure and warning water levels could rise again.

"This doesn't end this historic flood," he said.

CNN

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