this morning, an american tragedy. the deadliest tornado in 60 years. >> i just hope they got out before -- i hope they got out. >> in joplin, missouri, searching the rubble and ruins for those still missing a town facing a daunting recovery with determination. >> we'll get through. we're americans. but the region brace force a repeat with another massive outbreak expected today. >> announcer: from abc news, this is "america this morning" with rob nelson and peggy bunker. >> good morning, more severe weather threatens joplin, missouri. the death toll is at 116 but is expected to rise. the school district canceled the rest of the year, after schools

were damaged. internet access is still spotty. some people people are relying on the special facebook page to get information about the victims. >> a fly-over of the city. fires still burning, homes were flattened, wiped away, street after street. the city's home depot store completely gone. walls flattened, debris everywhere. however, a sign of goodwill, neighbors searching for neighbors amid the wreckage. >> that's where things resume with the search for people stitt missing. john hendren begins the coverage. >> reporter: now comes the long search for survivors. >> hell, it's horrible. i'm 34 years old. i've been this guy's friend since i was 15. >> reporter: it's the same over joplin, missouri which reeked the worst of a twist er that was three quarters of a mile. ravaging most of the town. >> that's the first i was ever

in a tornado. looking at the roof and walls blow off is enough for me. >> reporter: for some the stories were miraculous, this man sent a text message to a friend that saved his life. >> he's my friend, my best friend. yeah, i just got a message from him. >> reporter: maxine harris was rescued from st. john's hospital after the cyclone ripped off the roof like a soup can. >> some nice people took me in the wheelchair and just took me down all seven flights. >> reporter: the funnel wrapped in rain that ravaged most of joplin was one of 70 twisters. >> this year has really been just the perfect year for tornadoes. >> anything they need we'll be there. >> reporter: at the home depot rescue workers found eight people, seven of them alive. gary england believes his brother is still inside. his truck is in the parking lot. >> we haven't found him yet. we'll keep looking and be out here until we find them. >> reporter: then the loss, swept up in the wind of 100 miles an hour.

well over 100 in joplin alone and counting. john hendren, abc news. and our coverage with david muir continues in joplin. >> that's right. he has more how the powerful storm moved through and the amazing stories of survival. >> reporter: the powerful ef-4 twister had 200 mile an hour wins. at time ace 6-mile path of destruction a mile wide. the massive twister touching down at 5:40 local time, where it sheared off the roof of the hospital st. john's. sucking the patients out of the rooms. the hospital paralyzed. as it continued through joplin, subdivisions gone. streets now lined with foundation where's homes once stood. next to joplin high school, the roof peeled off. >> entire neighborhoods had been wiped off the map. you can see all that's left of the homes as far as you can see that way. really as far as you can see this way as well. >> reporter: this family, their home now gone, they all survived in the bathroom. they saved a 3-year-old girl

across the street as her mother screamed from the second floor. >> we had the little girl. >> her grandma came. >> her parents are both gone. >> she lost both of her parents. >> reporter: david muir, abc news. >> it's devastating there. so many stories of loss this morning. the federal emergency response team is now on the ground in joplin. earlier, terry moran spoke with the deputy fema administrator. >> the first thing i noticed was all the first-responders, the police officer, firefighter, emts, the tremendous, heroic work they were doing, pulling survivors out of the rubble. neighbors helping neighbors, pulling each other out of the rubble. that was hours after the event. the resiliency of this community is something unbelievable so far. >> joplin is still in the crosshairs as more severe storms bear down on the plains and midwest. the area facing the highest risk of tornado stretches from oklahoma city to wichita.

as you see, another 50 twisters could hit today. accompanied by baseball-sized hail, 80-mile-an-hour winds as well as heavy rain. more of the same is expected for tomorrow. as you can imagine we have a team of reporters in joplin. diane sawyer leads the coverage later today on "good morning america." >> overseas, the capital of libya has been bombarded in one of the most powerful strikes since it launched its air strike campaign. the attacks appear to be aimed at moammar gadhafi's residential compound. the government said at least three people were killed. and from japan, complications that three nuclear reactors suffered meltdowns in march after the tsunami. previously they only admitted to one meltdown. officials want to know what took so long for the utility to come forward. president obama is spending his tuesday on a state visit to britain. he arrived in london last night. a bit earlier than scheduled. he left ireland earlier because of the concerns about the ash

cloud in the volcano in iceland. today he meets british leaders and attends a dinner with the clean before sleeping at buckingham palace. during his time in ireland, the president addressed a massive crowd in dublin and also visited the home town of his great, great, great grandfather. also sent condolences to the tornado victims as well. on his way out of the u.s. embassy in dublin, mr. obama's armored limousine got stuck in the drive way. there wasn't enough clearance to make it out. ultimately the obamas switched cars and were on their way. even the president can get car trouble. >> it can happen. we'll look at this morning's weather across the nation, the storms hitting the plains actually stretched to the northeast. won't be quite as severe, but look for gusts of thunwind, hail and thunderstorms. cincinnati, d.c. and new york. light mountain snow in the rockies, showers from denver to billings and pacific northwest. 60s in colorado springs, 68 in the twin city, 80s from omaha

to dallas. over to miami, atlanta hospitals up to 91 and new york city hits 83. >> with more potentially damaging storms, we'll look at what is behind the season of severe weather. why these storms keep coming. >> and later, watch out, a very close call for a former president. we'll be right back. esep

well, the insurance companies are wasting no time

coming to the aid of tornado victims. joplin, missouri is just the latest stop for mobile units. this year is the insurance's industry worst ever for storm-damaged claims. but the company entered the year in good financial shape. today is the day chrysler pays off loans from the u.s. and canadian governments and fiat increases its stake in the company. sergio marcioni confirms that. chrysler owes the two governments $7.5 billion. and concerns about the u.s. and european economies worrying overseas investors, tokyo's nikkei average up, hong song's hang seng up slightly higher. on wall street the dow fell 1%. meanwhile the nasdaq index was also down. >> good news. the fbi said crime dropped significantly. that is a surprise. property crime usually goes up during a recession.

instead it's continuing to fall. criminal gists covered, describing the trend as remarkable and astonishing. of course they do hope it will continue. >> how many friends you have on facebook may give away how old you are. the study finds that 22-year-old has facebook friends, 50 times as many as young and dad. young adults define "friend" dlif and women have more friends than men do. >> interesting. definitely a younger crowd has more friends. there you go. >> coming up next on tuesday, in case you missed it, the first time the pastor behind the armageddon warning, accepts a new date. >> and storm after storm. what is causing all of this and could next year be even worse? pooches and puppies, we are fed up with being fed on. we demand k9 advantix ii.

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and, they were ready tore the close up, 200 miles above the earth. soyuz captured the shots of shuttle "endeavour." it was the first and last time the soyuz headed home. and look at travel conditions, flooding from i-70 to kansas city. on i 80 to 09 and slick spots from i-95 from boston to washington, d.c. wet on i-5 to the pacific northwest. and if you're flying, delays possible from kansas city, denver, memphis, new york city and d.c. like >> like tuscaloosa, months ago, we are once again drawn to these incredible images from an american disaster zone, bringing up to date on the top story. >> the death toll is expected to go higher as crews dig through the rubble of what were once

neighborhood bs in joplin, missouri, at least 17 people have been pulled out a live. >> more bad weather expected today. the joplin tornado is the latest in a deadly series. sam chan ontakes a look why we're seeing so many stories this year. >> even veteran storm chasers said they haven't seen anything like this. >> the thing that's amazing is the sheer size of the tornado and how fast it moved through the city of joplin. speeds were 45, 50 on the south side of town. i could not keep up with the tornado. it was outrunning me. the tornado was in excess of 50 miles an hour. >> reporter: last month. 875 confirmed tornadoes was an all-time record for the month of april. in that month, 24 lives were lost during a series of storms in north carolina. and then came the deadly outbreaks that devastated parts of tuscaloosa, alabama. leaving a death toll that reached beyond 300. so far this year, there have been over 450 reported tornado

deaths, making 2011 already the ninth deadliest tornado season since 1875. so, what's happening in there's a persistent pat enof colder than normal air in the west drink by a powerful jet stream, colliding with warm, humid record heat in the south. resulting in a unstable and favorable pattern for severe patterns and tornadoes to develop over and over and over. >> this real has really been just the perfect year for tornadoes. >> reporter: climatologist heidi cullen writes about global warming but said you can't pin these tornadoes directly on to climate change. >> more extreme events like droughts, heat wave, wildfires, are phenomenon we expect to see more of as we move into a warmer world. >> reporter: what is clear in joplin, that no amount of warning could have prevented utter destruction and there is no sign of relief, with another powerful storm system moving into the plains in the midwest.

it guarantees more severe weather and looks more and more like another tornado outbreak in the same areas. i'm sam champion in joplin, missouri. >> sam will have much more on the tragedy in joplin coming up on "good morning america." meanwhile there's a lot to clean up in lacrosse, wisconsin, 200 homes and businesses there were damaged and detroyed when a tornado struck saturday afternoon. no one was seriously hurt despite the storm's half of destruction that stretched for half a mile. abc news learned police found physical evidence in the case of dominique strauss-kahn. material wore on the shirt matches dna from strauss-kahn. they intend to argue sex between strauss-kahn and the maid was consensual. the religious radio host who worned the world would come to an end set a new date for the apocalypse. harold camping now said the

rapture will take place five months from now. he apologized for getting the date wrong. he felt so terrible his doomsday message did not come true, that he and his wife actually took refuge in a hoe >> all rig put that on the calendar. we don't know if the new rapture date will come true. it's time for sports highlights, with that be go to the espn news. >> good morning, i'm don exciting news the nba. dirk nowitzki, game four of the western conference finals. mavericks, trying to raise a 15-point deficit, nowitzki, again. he scored 12 of their last points in regulation. how about the awkward shot right there. 101-98. later on, he was fouled. so we're tied at 101. under 5 seconds remaining, thunder, looking for the winner,

kevin durant is blocked right there by shawn marion. and so we continue, dirk, spinning in the lane, finds jason kidd, pump faked. oh, stitched the long ball. to the ice we go, mike smith making his first playoff start for the lightning in game five. how about that? nathan horton with the one-timer right side at one. later in the second. same score, patrice bergeron, finds marchand in front of the net. bruins up 3-1. third period. eric brewer, takes the shot, bounces off the end of the boards. there's steve downie. he had 33 saves, bruins win 3-1. they take a three games to two series lead. >> let's go to the diamond, shall we? blue jays and yankees. cologne on the mound facing jose

bautista in the first. get up and get on. 19th home run of the season, leads the big. blue jays win it 7-3. that is all for your espn news update, i am don bell. well, the best seat in the house for a baseball game can be a little dangerous, even if you're a former president. >> this as chicago catcher tried to catch a foul ball. check this out, very close, as george w. bush sat in the owner's box. this is at last night's white s sox/rangers game. he was good at dodging that. i was impressed by lawyer, she got right out of the way. >> the president has good reflexes. he was ducking the shoes. good shape, mr. president. all right. coming up next, the volcano still messing with air travel again this morning. >> and where do things stand on the dance floor going into tonight's final show? who will it be? i love that my daughter's part fish.

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and now a look ahead to the stories we'll be watching on this tuesday. rescue crews searching the rubble in joplin for any survivors. it can be a slow going because of the amount of debris. this was the nation's deadliest twister in nearly 60 years. and as the devastated city is bracing for more wild weather today, it could get caught in the middle of another tornado outbreak. expect this is expect from oklahoma

city to wichita. severe storms and heavy rain could stretch into the northeast, hitting washington, d.c. and here in new york. >> president obama is in london for a full day of events. he's visiting with the queen and will meet the newly married couple william and kate. that's in addition to attending meetings with britain's top political leaders as well. and tonight, it's back to buckingham palace for a state dinner and a slopeover. and ash cloud from the erupting volcano in iceland is now spreading. flights are being canceled. those are flights two-to-and from scotland. we should know if transatlantic routes will be affected. after weeks of anticipation, we'll find out who takes home the mirrorball trophy. disney star chelsea cane and super bowl star hines ward, will they head in to first place? kirstie alley is trailing them. with one dance remaining she's still in the running for the big title. we'll see what happens, for some of you, local news is coming up. >> and for everybody else? was it some sort of sign?

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next on abc7 news at 4:30 -- disturbing details about a kidnapping plot. >> she needs to pay for what she has done. >> new information about a california grand mother accused of stealing her baby granddaughter. her bay area granddaughter and using her as a human prop. plus, the charge debate. bart's new plan to buy more tasers for officers while officials say it's a matter of safety. mike has the forecast. >> plenty of sunshine today. but that won't be the case well, aside from the official response to the tornado tragedy, hundreds of volunteers have also poured into that stricken city.

>> our sister station, jopd led a hand. >> reporter: kyle blevins and seven of his buddies are here to help. they're from arkansas and head straight to joplin. >> we headed out 6:00 this morning and brought cases of water, palettes of water, try to do what we can. >> reporter: the men said they're average joes trying to help. one of the first houses they came across had a wall on a car. >> he needed help getting that off. we just asked him, he said he'd love that. >> reporter: robert owns the house, he said people have offered to help all day. >> they stopped and asked me if i needed help. these guys just come over and they was ready. >> reporter: the men also brought their chain saws, and starting cleaning the roads. >> we saw it on tv last night. heard about it, some of the other guys had aunts and uncles in the area. they are okay. eight guys doink what we can.

>> reporter: layer said he just bought a storm shelter a couple months ago that saved his wife. >> it was so loud. >> reporter: and the average joes found a battered flag on the ground and made sure to hang it back up where it belongs. >> prdy needs prayers here. >> reporter: in the midst of all of that devastation, a sign of hope emerged over the city of joplin. >> a double rainbow spotted shortly after the twitter devastated the city. it's not the first time a rainbow popped up through the tornado. this is spreading through the internet at lightning speed. they need a sign of hope amidst that. nice to have that to look at. >> thank you, everyone. >> diane sawyer leads coverage from joplin. do not miss that. of course the continuing coverage you can find at abcnews.com all day.