Situation Update No. 1 : USA – Tornado
Feb 29
Posted:2012-02-29, 17:59:10 [UTC]
Ref.no.: TO-20120229-34350-USA
Situation Update No. 1
On 2012-02-29 at 18:03:48 [UTC]
Event: Tornado
Location: USA State of Missouri Buffalo, Lebanon and Branson
Number of Deads: 3 person(s)
Number of Injured: 16 person(s)
Situation:
In Branson, 32 people were treated at one hospital for injuries, mostly cuts and bruises. An apparent tornado moved through downtown Branson, heavily damaging the city’s famous theaters and hopscotching up Highway 76, uprooting road signs and scattering debris. The injuries could have been far worse had the storm hit next week, when the tourist season begins. “If it was a week later, it’d be a different story,” said Bill Tirone, assistant general manager for the 530-room Hilton and adjacent Branson Convention Center, where windows were shattered and some rooms had furniture sucked away by high winds. Hotel workers were able to get all guests to safety as the storm raged. John Moore, owner of the damaged Cakes-n-Creams ’50s Diner, said the apparent twister appeared to “jump side to side” as it moved down the entertainment district, right through the convention center, across a lake and into a housing division. “The theater next to me kind of exploded. It went everywhere. The hotels on the two sides of me lost their roofs. Power lines are down. Windows are blown out,” Moore said. “There’s major, major destruction. There has to be millions dollars of damage all down the strip.
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