The death toll could rise in southwest Missouri and parts of Oklahoma and Kansas hit by tornadoes and high winds Saturday night.
The hardest-hit area is in Newton County where a tornado killed 13 people as it devastated a path 12-miles long from the state line to north of Neosho.
An estimated 180 people were hurt, several of them critically.
(attached to this story is an audio file of a conversation this morning between Missourinet news director Bob Priddy and reporter Kara Marxer at affiliate KZRG in Joplin).
View the Joplin Globe’s slide show of the damage at:
http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/local_slideshow_131214539