Hunt for tornado survivors looking bleak

Kevin Murphy Edmonton Journal 05/25/2011 17:27

First they found his dark blue teddy bear. Then frantic relatives searching for toddler Skyular Logsdon spotted his red T-shirt and pants, torn, rain-soaked and wrapped around a telephone pole. The little boy hasn't been seen since Sunday night when a massive tornado ripped through the centre of Joplin, Mo., killing at least 123 people and leaving many more missing.

As search teams took advantage of a break in the bad weather on Tuesday to look for survivors under mountains of wreckage, Skyular's relatives carefully lifted up the wooden beams and twisted metal of what was once his home.

They prayed for signs of life from the boy, who was about 15 months old. His injured parents are in hospital.

"We have searched every morgue, every hospital, every place we can think of," said Rusty Burton, a stepgrandfather to Skyular. "I looked at every piece of this house I could."

The discovery of the young boy's clothes on the telephone pole nearly 180 metres away was gut-wrenching.

"It's all torn up. I don't want him to have been wearing this," said relative Pamela Tate, sobbing as she gripped the wet, tiny clothes. "All I want is for him to be alive. That is all I want."

The search for Skyular is but one of the many sorrow-filled hunts for loved ones in this southwestern Missouri city of 50,000, where about 1,500 people remain missing. Authorities said the missing could include many who simply have not yet been able to let relatives know where they are.