The death toll from the killer twisters shot up to 51 yesterday after three Oklahomans succumbed to their injuries and fresh storms took four more lives in Tennessee.
And officials are worried the number could still rise, with dozens of people unaccounted for, possibly buried beneath the wreckage of their homes.
“Of the 55 missing … the impression we have is that they all would have been in harm’s way,” Oklahoma Chief Medical Examiner Fred Jordan said.
The monster tornadoes that chewed up the southern plains this week destroyed 5,000 homes in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas – obliterating entire neighborhoods in mere seconds.
But as Oklahoma and Kansas began mopping up, the tornado system spawned fierce storms in Tennessee, where three people were killed overnight, state officials said.
Rebuilding will cost a bundle.
“A billion dollars sounds like a reasonable estimate for all those areas,” said Jerry Johns, president of the Southwestern Insurance Information Institute of Austin, Texas.
“This will probably be one of the worst tornadoes in the history of this country, in terms of insured losses.”