we re following the breaking news this hour, a tornado outbreak that scraped parts of the midwest this morning, killing at least nine people and injuring more than 100. hardest hit, harrisburg, illinois, where at least six people died, including two children. within the last half hour, we learned the tornado was a category ef-4, with winds, get this, up to 170 miles an hour, and as wide as two football fields. in the last hour, the mayor spoke at a grief-stricken news conference. we have suffered the loss of lives. we ve suffered many injures, and millions of dollars worth of is it damage, but first and foremost the loss of lives breaks my heart today. in neighboring missouri, the governor puts the damage in the tens of millions. there s also damage in kansas and kentucky, where the national guard has been called out. let s get the latest, chad myers is watching what s going on. the heartbreaking to see it, not a whole lot of warning. what s going on now? i think the mo
people into panic, though none of the band members on the stage were injured. we were waiting to see cheap trick and all of a sudden we saw lightning and the stage fell over. reporter: it was several stories tall and collapsed backwards into semitrailers parked in the rear. people said it happened so fast that everybody started screaming and running. thousands of fans had to seek shelter at a nearby museum. there were thunderstorms in the area at the time of the concert just before 8:00pm. the winds clocked in at 56 miles per hour. the accident exposes just what can happen when large crowds can be left unprotected in open areas during the violent weather like we ve had across our country this summer. the ottawa blues fest was set to end last night. it s a 12-day music extravaganza that books some of the biggest names in rock and jazz. a member of one of the groups that was playing yesterday said thankfully it was a miracle that no one was killed. he said gear can be replaced, peopl
over. reporter: it was several stories tall and collapsed backwards into semitrailers parked in the rear. people said it happened so fast that everybody started screaming and running. thousands of fans had to seek shelter at a nearby museum. there were thunderstorms in the area at the time of the concert just before 8:00pm. the winds clocked in at 56 miles per hour. the accident exposes just what can happen when large crowds can be left unprotected in open areas during the violent weather like we ve had across our country this summer. the ottawa blues fest was set to end last night. it s a 12-day music extravaganza that books some of the biggest names in rock and jazz. a member of one of the groups that was playing yesterday said thankfully it was a miracle that no one was killed. he said gear can be replaced, people can t, clearly it could have been a lot worse, jon. jon: it sound like it was a good thing that it toppled backward toward the parking lot instead of forward toward the
i m going to bring in our meteorologist jacqui jeras. we have been monitoring these feeds. you have been monitoring scanner traffic. we re told a number of injuries, possibility casualties. people are looking for people. what s going on? so much devastation. it s hard to get a handle on how widespread this is. of course, communication is extremely limited. they re asking people to stay out of the city because emergency crews are trying to set up triages to help the people who have been injured. and also, you know, there are some reports of doas as well, so we re not sure how many at this time. a tornado did touch down in joplin just before 6:00 central time. moved through the downtown area and continued to push on up toward the north and east of there. we ve got reports of buildings in downtown damaged, homes that have been completely leveled, trees that have been snapped off. and just, you know, rubble all over the place. the scene has been described as
being roar ific. there are reports, as you mentioned, the hospital, st. john s medical center there, there s a gas leak in the area. they re concerned there could potentially be an explosion. there have been a number of life flight helicopters trying to get in and out of there to protect these people as well. a large scale search and rescue is going on. neighbors are trying to help each other. people are missing. they re trying to get through that rubble and help anybody who might be trapped in this situation. this is also very near interstate 44. there have been a number of reports of people who have been trapped in cars there, semitrailers, which have blown over. so this is a very serious situation that continues to be developing at this hour. major damage, monster tornado that moved through here. we saw this thing developing on doppler radar. i have an image i could show you, which is on our gr 118 if you want to take that. when you see something like this on radar, if you see that