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American Morning

Deadly Tornados, Kansas, Missouri Hardest Hit

Aired May 05, 2003 - 07:09   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: We want to go now to southern Kansas and the town of Franklin. It's just south of Pittsburgh and near the Missouri border.
Frank Mitchell from our affiliate, KTUL, is there with the latest.

Frank, I want to remind everybody, this was an F-5 tornado. I mean, it doesn't get anymore severe than that. What are you seeing where you are?

FRANK MITCHELL, CNN AFFILIATE KTUL REPORTER: Well, unfortunately, we're pretty much cut out from where the damage is. If you can see the roadblock behind me, that is State Highway 57 that leads into the community of Girard, where there are two fatalities and quite a bit of damage, about at least five people injured in that area.

That tornado tracked pretty much to where I am here in Franklin, Kansas, where an elderly woman was thrown about 50 yards from her home. She, too, died. This was the worst tornado outbreak in this county, Crawford County, Kansas, since 1983.

The tornado continued on towards Missouri, where we have extensive damage in southwestern Missouri as well. And we have video of that to show you some of the damage from Missouri.

As this tornado at one point was one mile wide, it stayed on the ground for about 33 miles and caused an enormous amount of damage. You've heard the numbers throughout the morning, up to near 29 people dead, 9 missing. Those numbers expected to rise.

Now, as it moved into Missouri, by the way, it hit a freight train over in Mulberry, Kansas, while it was moving on the tracks, so that was a frightening situation as well.

And this is obviously a day that's going to be pretty much involved in people cleaning up quite a bit here in the southeastern Kansas area, something that they're used to tornados here, but certainly not fatalities. A lot of open land, but in this case the tornado hitting quite a few towns.

And in Missouri, where it hit in a few areas as well, a lot of people witnessed the tornado as it came in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOHN VULGAMORE, WITNESS: You had some funnel clouds over here, and then they backed south and landed right over there and started coming through. And my nephew and I were on the back deck, and I said, 'That's going to hit us.' And he says, "You think?" And I said, 'Oh, yes, that's going to hit us.' And we stood there until it got about 100 yards. I mean, it hit that brush right there, and we went down in the basement and it just tore the roof off and went right through that way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MITCHELL: And I might want to mention that one of our storm chasers that we use told us that there was a town called Stockton in Missouri that was completely wiped out. Pretty much the whole town is gone, so obviously a horrifying situation.

Heidi -- back to you.

COLLINS: The video that we have seen this morning, especially from your station, has just been unbelievable. Frank Mitchell from KTUL, our affiliate, coming to us from Franklin, Kansas this morning. Thank you, Frank.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired May 5, 2003 - 07:09   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: We want to go now to southern Kansas and the town of Franklin. It's just south of Pittsburgh and near the Missouri border.
Frank Mitchell from our affiliate, KTUL, is there with the latest.

Frank, I want to remind everybody, this was an F-5 tornado. I mean, it doesn't get anymore severe than that. What are you seeing where you are?

FRANK MITCHELL, CNN AFFILIATE KTUL REPORTER: Well, unfortunately, we're pretty much cut out from where the damage is. If you can see the roadblock behind me, that is State Highway 57 that leads into the community of Girard, where there are two fatalities and quite a bit of damage, about at least five people injured in that area.

That tornado tracked pretty much to where I am here in Franklin, Kansas, where an elderly woman was thrown about 50 yards from her home. She, too, died. This was the worst tornado outbreak in this county, Crawford County, Kansas, since 1983.

The tornado continued on towards Missouri, where we have extensive damage in southwestern Missouri as well. And we have video of that to show you some of the damage from Missouri.

As this tornado at one point was one mile wide, it stayed on the ground for about 33 miles and caused an enormous amount of damage. You've heard the numbers throughout the morning, up to near 29 people dead, 9 missing. Those numbers expected to rise.

Now, as it moved into Missouri, by the way, it hit a freight train over in Mulberry, Kansas, while it was moving on the tracks, so that was a frightening situation as well.

And this is obviously a day that's going to be pretty much involved in people cleaning up quite a bit here in the southeastern Kansas area, something that they're used to tornados here, but certainly not fatalities. A lot of open land, but in this case the tornado hitting quite a few towns.

And in Missouri, where it hit in a few areas as well, a lot of people witnessed the tornado as it came in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOHN VULGAMORE, WITNESS: You had some funnel clouds over here, and then they backed south and landed right over there and started coming through. And my nephew and I were on the back deck, and I said, 'That's going to hit us.' And he says, "You think?" And I said, 'Oh, yes, that's going to hit us.' And we stood there until it got about 100 yards. I mean, it hit that brush right there, and we went down in the basement and it just tore the roof off and went right through that way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MITCHELL: And I might want to mention that one of our storm chasers that we use told us that there was a town called Stockton in Missouri that was completely wiped out. Pretty much the whole town is gone, so obviously a horrifying situation.

Heidi -- back to you.

COLLINS: The video that we have seen this morning, especially from your station, has just been unbelievable. Frank Mitchell from KTUL, our affiliate, coming to us from Franklin, Kansas this morning. Thank you, Frank.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.