Tornadoes kill six in Picher

NOTE: Many updates below.

Tornadoes killed at least 16 people Saturday evening in southwestern Missouri and northeastern Oklahoma, including six in Picher, a former mining town just off Route 66.

The Joplin Globe reports:

John Sparkman, of Picher, Okla., characterized the damage done by a tornado in the Northeast Oklahoma community this evening as “complete devastation.”

“The whole south part of town is much totally destroyed. … The path of destruction has to be a half-mile wide.”

And according to Reuters:

“Basically a 24-block area is virtually destroyed,” said Michelann Ooten, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.

She added that Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry had ordered National Guard troops to arrive in Picher by Sunday morning to help in rescue and recovery operations.

Ooten told the Associated Press that the death toll could rise as emergency workers dig through the rubble left in the tornado’s wake.

The Tulsa World reports that the tornado touched down between 5:15 and 5:30 p.m., destroying the south end of town. According to the World, access to Picher has been blocked because of gas leaks and downed power lines, and the nearby Route 66 community of Miami is assisting with disaster response.

The World reports that a triage area has been set up south of Miami for those injured in the storm, and shelters are being established for Picher residents displaced by the storm.

NewsOK.com has additional information about the storm here.

Wikipedia has already updated its Picher entry with information about the tornado, setting the number of storm-related injuries at 46.

Picher just celebrated its 90th anniversary with a parade; the Associated Press was there and offered this poignant report about Picher’s recent history.

Even before this evening’s storm, Picher was struggling. Lead and zinc mines in the area surrounding the community closed in the early 1970s, devastating the local economy and leaving behind lead-tainted slag piles (many of them visible from Route 66) and 40 square miles of pollution so severe that the federal government declared the entire Tar Creek area a Superfund site; nearly a quarter-century after the declaration, a $60 million federal buyout is under way, and residents have been encouraged to move out of the area for their own safety.

The mines also left a legacy of cave-ins, with abandoned tunnels collapsing periodically, creating more hazards for residents; a 2006 cave-in caused irreparable damage to the Green Parrot Tavern on Route 66 in nearby Galena, Kan. The building was demolished last fall.

You can view a collection of photographs of the Tar Creek Superfund area around Picher at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Web site.

The Tulsa World produced a video last year about life in Picher. You can view it here; to find it, scroll through the video list until you come to “What’s left in Picher,” which is the 10th video from the bottom.

UPDATE: The Miami (Okla.) News-Record, which is just a few miles from Picher, has a good story about the scene in that town.

The News-Record also reports that the Red Cross has set up a shelter at the First Christian Church, at 2424 N. Main, aka Route 66, in the north end of town.

If someone you know in the area is missing, click here to find out whether he or she is in a local hospital. About 40 were taken to the Miami hospital as of 9 p.m. Saturday.

UPDATE2: The Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management reports seven dead and 150 injured in Picher, as of 3:30 a.m. Sunday:

Ottawa County Emergency Management reports homes, businesses and vehicles were destroyed in a 20-square-block area at the south end of Picher. In some cases, only a home’s concrete slab remains. The storm downed power lines, utility poles and trees. Saturday evening first responders went house to house digging through the rubble to free those who were trapped. At daylight today, the search for additional victims will continue.  Damage also reported in Peoria and Quapaw.

Quapaw is a Route 66 town, right on the Kansas border.

State troopers and the Oklahoma National Guard are keeping everyone but rescuers from going into Picher. So it’s not a good idea to be a sightseer today. A search-and-rescue team from Tulsa also is scheduled to arrive Sunday morning.

UPDATE3: The Oklahoma Department of Emergency management, citing an error, dropped the number of Picher fatalities from seven to six.

All the damaged homes in Picher have been searched, so the death toll probably won’t climb any higher.

UPDATE4: Here is a video shot of the tornado near Miami, Okla., that reportedly struck Picher:

Here’s another short video of the damage in Picher:

Here’s a video of firefighters and rescuers, picking through the rubble and looking for survivors: