Four people were killed and more than a dozen were injured by the biggest tornado to hit Crawford County in recent history. Storms claimed at least 10 lives in southeast Kansas and southwest Missouri.
Cutting a path nearly half a mile wide, the tornado touched down near McCune, in western Crawford County, around 4:40 p.m. Sunday and churned its way across the county through the outskirts of Girard, the tiny community of Ringo, into Franklin and the fringes of Mulberry before moving into Missouri.
Two deaths were reported in the Girard area and a third was an elderly woman in Franklin. The fourth Crawford County death was reported by the state adjutant general's office and had yet to be confirmed by Crawford County officials.
"We have three confirmed fatalities right now," said Crawford County Coronor Dr. Adam Paoni from a makeshift morgue at Smith-Carson-Wall Funeral Home at Girard. "I don't have any more information than that right now."
Names of the Girard-area victims were not available. The Franklin victim was identified at the scene as Josephine Maghe, whose body was found by emergency personnel in the rubble about 50 yards north of where her house once stood on Broadway Street in Franklin.
They are the first tornado-related fatalities in Crawford County since a Mulberry woman was killed by a storm in the 1983. And they were among at least 10 people killed in southeast Kansas and southwest Missouri on Sunday.
Cherokee County Sheriff Bob Creech said three people were killed when a tornado hit south of Columbus around 6 p.m. One death came when a mobile home "disintegrated" about three miles south of Columbus, Creech said. The other two were in a house that was destroyed near Crestline.
Another person died west of Liberal, Mo., according to Barton County Sheriff's Deputy John Simpson, and the Jasper County Sheriff's Department reported two fatalities near Carl Junction, Mo. There were no available reports of injuries in those counties.
Mt. Carmel Regional Medical Center in Pittsburg reported treating at least 15 victims from the Crawford County tornado Sunday evening.
"Two in surgery, two in (intensive care unit)," reported nursing shift supervisor Henry Ford. "The rest were minor injuries, cuts and things like that," he said.
Ford said a couple of people treated for chest pains Sunday night were apparently stricken after weathering the storm or learning of it.
At Hospital District No. 1 of Crawford County at Girard, five people were treated for storm-related injuries, according to Connie Womble, director of nursing. Two victims were transferred - one to the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan., and the other to St. John's Regional Medical Center at Joplin, Mo.
Hospital District No. 1 and Mt. Carmel both were prepared for the influx of storm victims.
"We had a tremendous response," said Dennis Nehls, director of the Girard hospital, which put in place a disaster plan, mobilizing staff and volunteers.
Mt. Carmel took similar preparations.
"We had two (operating room) crews, extra lab, extra x-ray folks and extra (emergency room) folks waiting," said Krista Postai, vice president for marketing and planning. "From the storm until the time we got our first patients was an hour to an hour and a half, so we were very well equipped and actually relieved that there were fewer injuries that we expected. Initial reports sounded pretty scary."
