Joplin tornado death toll hits 138

Four more people died in the hospital from injuries sustained in the stormThe death toll could continue to rise as more fight for their lives, public safety official saysThe tornado struck the town of 50,000 people May 22

(CNN) -- The number of victims from last month's devastating tornado in Joplin, Missouri, has risen to 138 after four people died as a result of injuries they received during the storm, the Missouri Department of Public Safety announced Thursday.

The ages of the victims range from a 1-year-old boy to a 94-year-old woman.

The death toll could continue to rise, public safety spokesman Seth Bundy said Wednesday.

"We have a lot of critically injured folks that we're hoping and praying they'll pull through, but there could be additional deaths attributed to this storm," he told CNN.

State officials said Wednesday that the number of people missing in the tornado-ravaged city had reached zero after authorities located all unaccounted for individuals or confirmed their deaths.

Residents of the town of 50,000 have been working to pick up the pieces since the tornado, packing winds of 200 mph, tore through their community May 22.

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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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Despite better technology, 2011 set to be deadliest tornado year

A rescue team searches house to house for survivors Monday after a deadly tornado struck Joplin, Missouri.At least 483 people have died in U.S. tornadoes so far this yearThe deadliest tornado year on record is 1925, which had 794 deathsThe power and locations of 2011's twisters could help explain the high death tollPiers 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.

(CNN) -- The devastating tornado that killed more than 100 people in Missouri this week puts the United States on track for a record-breaking year -- despite improved forecasting, warning systems and public awareness, weather experts say.

By 11 a.m. Tuesday, the death toll in Joplin had reached 118, making it the single deadliest tornado since the National Weather Service began keeping such records 61 years ago.

The tornado in Joplin brought the number of people who have died in U.S. tornadoes to 483 so far this year. The figure could escalate as rescue workers continue digging through rubble from Sunday's tornado in Joplin, Missouri.

Missouri tornado deadliest in decades

The deadliest tornado year on record is 1925, which had 794 deaths, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The number of fatalities so far this year is more than eight times the average number for an entire year -- 56, according to CNN meteorologist Chad Myers.

With all the advancements in storm technology, the question is simple: Why?

"That's the question of 2011," said Bob Henson of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. "Why have so many people died in these tornadoes? That's the open question. It's partly because of the strength of these tornadoes. Also because they've hit populated areas."

Myers said the brute force of some tornadoes might just be too severe for many structures.

"Some tornadoes, you just can't survive them," he said. "They're just too big."

'Tornado' once banned from forecasts

Since 1875, the average number of deaths from tornadoes has actually decreased -- from about 200 to 55 a year, Myers said. This year is a sharp anomaly.

In addition, the number of killer tornadoes is higher in 2011 -- 49 deadly tornadoes have touched down in the United States this year, compared to an average of 22 killer tornadoes in the past. And it's only May.

But early statistics on U.S. tornadoes have been spotty.

Because twisters were not measured the same way they are now, experts don't know whether the 1925 Tri-State tornado that killed about 695 people in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana was actually a single funnel or many -- which is why it's not officially considered the deadliest single tornado.

Stories from the storm

The weekend tornado in Joplin stirred memories of two fatal twisters that struck in Alabama last month. One tornado hit Hackleburg and Phil Campbell, killing 78 people, and another struck Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, killing 61.

Warnings' effectiveness questioned after deadly twister

While many cities in tornado-prone areas have tornado sirens, the alarms sometimes get ignored.

"The sirens always go off, so no one thought anything of it," Joplin resident Alexa Wattelet said. "Where we were, nobody really seemed like they were in much of a shock."

But Myers said even if people take all possible precautions, a tornado can still leave fatalities.

"If you get hit by something the size of a 225 mph storm, it is not survivable," he said. "And that is not to scare anyone. But the people that did it right are not to blame."

CNN's Sean Morris and Greg Botelho 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.

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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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Southern tornado outbreak nation's deadliest in 86 years

Death toll from South's latest tornado outbreak climbs to 340Deadliest single day from tornadoes was in 1925 when 747 people diedAlabama death toll rises to at least 252Funerals for University of Alabama students killed by storms start this weekend

(CNN) -- As emergency responders continued to tally the dead on Saturday, surviving family members and friends prepared to bury loved ones who perished in what has become the second deadliest single-day tornado outbreak in U.S. history.

Among the victims for whom memorial services are planned in the coming days are three students of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. The area has emerged as the focal point for the Wednesday disaster that swept through six southern states and killed 340 people.

According to the Alabama Emergency Management Agency, at least 45 people people died during the storms in Tuscaloosa County, more than in any of the other five southern states that recorded deaths from Wednesday's violent weather.

By early Saturday morning, emergency management officials tallied 252 deaths in Alabama, 34 in Tennessee, 33 in Mississippi, 15 in Georgia, 5 in Virginia and 1 in Arkansas.

Since 1680, there has been only one other date in U.S. history on which more people died during a severe weather outbreak, according to weather experts.

On March 18, 1925, a severe storm system swept across seven states killing 747 people, according to the National Weather Service.

President Barack Obama visited Tuscaloosa on Friday. His motorcade passed street after street of homes reduced to splinters, crushed and flipped cars, and widespread debris on the way to his first stop to visit with families affected by the storms.

"I've got to say I've never seen devastation like this," Obama told reporters.

University of Alabama graduate student Arefeen Shamsuzzoha had a similar reaction after he toured much of the city on Friday taking photographs of the damage.

"The trees are completely stripped of all of their branches," Shamsuzzoha told CNN Saturday morning. "The ones that are standing just look like sticks rising from the ground."

Hundreds of people are unaccounted for in Tuscaloosa, though not all have been officially reported missing.

The University of Alabama student newspaper, The Crimson White, began tallying e-mails from students who were searching for missing friends. Within hours, the newspaper had received 68 e-mails from worried students.

Those who survived the disaster thanked God or simple luck.

Gar and Nettie Blume, husband and wife attorneys, were leaving the office Wednesday evening when the storms struck.

"We felt the pressure and heard the window implode," Gar Blume told CNN. "And the next thing we knew we had debris falling on us."

Added Nettie Blume, "We were just really lucky that the one place the roof fell off and didn't have something covering (us) was where we were. Everywhere else we would have been buried and waiting ... or dead."

Terry Nicholson, a nearby resident, pulled the Blumes out of the rubble. The only reason he survived -- and his house was still standing -- was divine intervention, he said.

"Everything was laid down and we were still standing," Nicholson said.. "It had to be my God."

CNN's Sarah Hoye contributed to this report.

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Tornado causes injuries at St. Louis airport

By Jeff Roberson, AP

Several people at Lambert Airport in St. Louis were injured Friday after an apparent tornado touched down, spewing debris, bursting glass in the concourse and damaging a parking garage.

EnlargeCloseBy Jeff Roberson, AP

Several people at Lambert Airport in St. Louis were injured Friday after an apparent tornado touched down, spewing debris, bursting glass in the concourse and damaging a parking garage.

Broadcast reports, citing airport officials, said most of the injuries Friday night were believed to be minor.

Airport officials say the airport was shut down and planes were diverted to other locations.

Crews were assessing damage at all the terminals. Plate glass windows were torn out, largely in Concourse C, where the most of the damage appeared to occur.

Television footage showed pieces of twisted metal outside the terminal.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Apparent tornado hits St. Louis airport

Tornado hits St. Louis airportSTORY HIGHLIGHTSNEW: The St. Louis mayor says the airport is closed indefinitely"The plane was rocking back and forth," one witness says CNN affiliate KSDK: The tornado ripped off part of a roof at one concoursePassengers are hit with flying glass and debris, KSDK says (CNN) -- Heavy winds from a severe storm caused significant damage, shattered windows and sent debris raining down on passengers at an airport in St. Louis Friday night.

The Lambert-St. Louis International Airport is closed indefinitely while officials investigate the damage, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay told reporters.

"There was a reported sighting of a tornado. Although that has not been confirmed, that storm caused significant damage to the airport," he said.

The reported tornado twisted metal and blew out plate-glass windows in the airport's main terminal, CNN affiliate KSDK reported.

Four people were transported to nearby hospitals with injuries, Slay said.

Passengers were hit with flying glass and debris as winds ripped off part of the roof in the airport's C concourse, the station reported.

One witness described a chaotic scene outside the terminal as officials evacuated passengers from at least one aircraft.

"The plane was rocking back and forth," said Brett Knewitz of Albuquerque, New Mexico, who was on a plane that was about to take off from the airport when the storm hit.

Initially officials did not allow evacuated passengers into the airport, he said, because of concerns that the building's roof would collapse.Once he was allowed inside, Knewitz said he saw an injured gate agent.

"She was bleeding like crazy," he said.

Concourse C is used by American Airlines, AirTran and Cape Air, airport spokesman Jeff Lea said.

The National Weather Service said witnesses believe a tornado was on the ground for several miles and observed the twister from a tower at the airport.

KSDK reported that the storm also blew the steeple off a church and forced authorities to close highways.

CNN's Marlena Baldacci, Taylor Ward and Greg Morrison contributed to this report.

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Tornado watches issued in central Plains

Violent tornadoes possible ThursdaySTORY HIGHLIGHTSNEW: Tornado watches are in place in Kansas, Oklahoma and TexasA powerful storm system is forming in the central Plains regionThunderstorms and violent tornadoes are possible in the central Plains Severe weather will move across the Deep South on Friday and into SaturdayIf severe weather happens near you, we want to hear your story. Share your photos and videos with CNN iReport, but please be careful.

(CNN) -- Tornado watches were issued Thursday afternoon for portions of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas and surrounding areas as severe thunderstorms intensified and forecasters predicted tornadoes, damaging wind and hail.

The National Weather Service issued the watches, which indicate conditions are favorable for tornadoes and severe thunderstorms in and close to the watch area.

Western Arkansas, southeast Kansas, extreme southwest Missouri, eastern Oklahoma and extreme northeast Texas are considered the most vulnerable regions.

This system will set the stage for severe weather over the next few days, according to CNN meteorologist Sean Morris. Large, damaging hail up to the size of softballs also will be possible with these storms.

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Tornado hits Kentucky plant; storms hit the South

About 184 employees were inside a manufacturing plant when the storm arrived shortly after 1 p.m., police say. STORY HIGHLIGHTSNEW: Likely tornado touches down in LouisianaStorms strike parts of Kentucky, Arkansas and TennesseeTornado apparently strikes manufacturing plant in KentuckyPolice spokesman: "It could have been a lot worse" RELATED TOPICSTornadoesWeatherKentucky (CNN) -- A tornado zeroed in Monday afternoon on a manufacturing plant in southwestern Kentucky, tossing pieces of the roof, collapsing part of the aluminum structure and injuring seven people, officials said.

Elsewhere in the South, thunderstorms caused damage, injuries and power failures.

Severe thunderstorm warnings extended from Atlanta to Charleston, West Virginia, and eastern Ohio.

About 184 employees were inside TGASK, a plant that makes automotive parts, when the storm arrived shortly after 1 p.m., said Paul Ray, spokesman for the Hopkinsville Police Department.

None of the injured had life-threatening injuries, said spokeswoman Jessica Beckham of Jennie Stuart Medical Center. Ray said the injuries were mostly bumps and bruises.

The manufacturing plant is between Hopkinsville and Pembroke.

"It could have been a lot worse," Ray told CNN. The plant was "very fortunate that at that time, there were very few injuries, and only minor injuries." All employees had been accounted for, he added.

The Kentucky Division of Emergency Management said possible tornadoes struck near La Center in Ballard County, with injuries being reported.

One injury was reported from a storm that hit a mobile home park in Greenville, Kentucky, said Police Chief Darren Harvey.

A likely tornado touched down two miles south of Georgetown in Grant Parish, Louisiana, on Monday afternoon, the Grant Parish Sheriff's Office said. There were reports of widespread damage in the community of Selma.

Numerous trees and power lines were down across the area, the sheriff's department said.

Officials in Arkansas reported at least three injuries from fast-moving storms.

More than 58,000 customers were without power in Tennessee, according to Nashville Electric Service.

Storms also struck Humphreys County in Tennessee, about 60 miles west of Nashville, according to authorities.

"We were hit hard in our downtown area," said Waverly City Manager Buddy Frazier.

Although no injuries were reported, trees, power lines, roofs and structures were down, Frazier told CNN.

A dispatcher said a communications tower was down in Humphreys County, but workers were still able to send and receive messages.

CNN's Sean Morris, Chuck Johnston, Aaron Cooper, Dave Alsup and Jackie Castillo contributed to this report

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