Texas tornadoes: The missing are found, more storms possible

People missing after 16 tornadoes tore through north Texas on Wednesday have all been found alive, authorities report. As officials and residents assess the damage, they are keeping a wary eye on the weekend forecast.

By Allison Terry,?Correspondent / May 17, 2013

Emergency personnel look through debris near Granbury, Texas, on Thursday. Sixteen tornadoes touched down in several small communities in Texas Wednesday night, leaving at least six people dead. Officials report that all people reported as missing have been found.

Rex C. Curry/AP

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North Texas residents who were reported missing after an outbreak of severe tornadoes Wednesday have all been found alive.

Skip to next paragraph Allison Terry

Correspondent

Allison Terry works on national news desk for the Christian Science Monitor. She also contributes to the culture section and Global News blog.

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Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds said Friday that all missing people are accounted for, and the death toll is unlikely to rise above six adults.

Surveying the extensive destruction in Granbury, Texas, residents and volunteers say they are surprised that more people were not killed or seriously injured.

?The good Lord was busy [Wednesday] night,? Red Cross volunteer Ray Fishercord told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.?

?Most of the homes had people in them when the tornado hit, and most of the people said they couldn?t believe what happened. The American Legion Hall at the bottom of the hill looked like a triage scene from 'M*A*S*H.' ?

An EF-4 category tornado hit Granbury, carrying winds of 166 to 200 m.p.h. and creating a path of destruction spanning 100 yards wide and a mile long. The highest tornado rating is an EF-5, which produces winds faster than 200 m.p.h.

Residents in the Rancho Brazos neighborhood ? where more than 70 homes were damaged or destroyed ? were evacuated, and authorities said it not clear when they will be able to survey the damage.

"I can't see them being able to get anyone in the area," said Hood County sheriff's spokesman Nathan Stringer. "That area is utterly devastated. I was in there for a couple of hours and I didn't see anything untouched. It was one big debris field."

Amanda Hernandez was at home with her husband and three children, but the warnings on TV didn?t really worry her. The sirens went off about 15 minutes before the tornado hit, so the family hid in a closet.

?It seemed like it lasted for an hour,? she told the Star-Telegram, describing the pounding hail and train-like sound of the twister. Her house lost half its roof, and she said her neighborhood is unrecognizable.

?You could see across where houses were supposed to be,? Ms. Hernandez said.

The Granbury tornado was one of at least 16 confirmed tornadoes that broke out across north Texas Wednesday, which is more than the 10 originally reported.

An EF-3 tornado (with winds ranging from 136 to 164 m.p.h.) hit the town of Cleburne, destroying numerous homes, but officials reported no major injuries or fatalities.

Meteorologist Harold Brooks, who works at National Severe Storms Labratory in Norman, Okla., said he expects 2013 to have one of the lowest levels of tornado-related deaths since the lab began tracking such fatalities in 1954. This is the furthest into tornado season that significant tornadoes have started, he told the Star-Telegram.

The forecast, however, includes a chance for additional storms in the area this weekend, the Weather Channel reports. There are several components in the mix that create tornado conditions: a dip in the jet stream as it moves east from the Rockies, intensifying low-pressure systems, and warm moisture moving inland from the Gulf of Mexico.

Thunderstorms, hail storms, and potential tornadoes are possible for Oklahoma, the Dakotas, Missouri, Nebraska, and parts of northern Texas throughout the weekend and possibly into Tuesday.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/RnDeeiD2-fg/Texas-tornadoes-The-missing-are-found-more-storms-possible

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Roof collapse at Cambodian shoe plant kills three

By Prak Chan Thul

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Three people were killed when the ceiling of a warehouse fell in at a shoe factory in Cambodia, a government minister said on Thursday, adding to concern about safety standards at Asian factories producing clothes cheaply for Western consumers.

Cambodia has seen a rush of investment in recent years, especially into the shoe and garment sector, with Western and Asian firms attracted by its low-cost labor. The International Monetary Fund says garments account for about 80 percent of the Southeast Asian country's exports.

Ith Sam Heng, minister of social affairs, told Reuters another six people had been injured in the incident at the plant in the Kong Pisei district of Kampong Speu province, 50 km (30 miles) west of the capital, Phnom Penh.

"We will investigate the case and we will take measures against those involved," he said, meaning anyone who might be held responsible for poor safety standards.

He said no one remained trapped inside the building.

Earlier, a trade union member at the factory had said six people had died in the collapse, which happened at around 8 p.m. EDT. The shoe factory, owned by Wing Star Shoes Co Ltd, a Taiwan company, employed about 7,000 people but only about 100 worked in the single-storey warehouse, according to staff.

Work at the plant stopped after the accident.

A Reuters reporter saw footwear bearing the name "Asics" scattered around the damaged warehouse, where a bulldozer was clearing away rubble.

A spokeswoman for Japanese sportswear maker Asics Corp said the factory made running shoes for it. "Our prayers go out to the families of those who have died," she said.

Asics relies on sports shoes for about two-thirds of its sales, which amounted to 57.33 billion yen ($560 million) company-wide in the year to March 31, 2013.

POOR CONDITIONS

A series of deadly incidents at factories in Bangladesh, the world's biggest exporter of clothing after China, has focused global attention on safety standards in the booming garment industry there.

An eight-storey complex of factories housing garment manufacturers collapsed in Bangladesh on April 24, killing more than 1,100 people. That has sparked campaigns in the West to improve safety conditions at plants in the country supplying Western brand names.

Strikes over pay and poor working conditions are common in the sector in Cambodia, also home to numerous factories producing clothing cheaply for Western retailers.

Ngeth Phat, 29, who was among those rescued on Thursday, said Wing Star had been open for little more than a year but there had already been two strikes by workers over poor working conditions and low wages she put at $80 a month.

"After I got into work, bits of brick dropped on me, and about 10 minutes later the whole ceiling collapsed. It was completely dark and I was under other people," she told Reuters from a hospital bed in Phnom Penh.

Ou Sam Oun, the governor of Kampong Speu province, said the factory would provide compensation of $5,000 to the families of the people who had died and $1,000 each to workers who were injured.

($1 = 102.4250 yen)

(Additional reporting by Amy Sawitta Lefevre in Bangkok and Timothy Kelly in Tokyo; Writing by Alan Raybould; Editing by Paul Tait and Robert Birsel)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/least-six-dead-cambodian-factory-collapses-union-member-025328238.html

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