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Joplin, Missouri (CNN) -- A tornado chewed through a densely populated area of Joplin, killing at least 89 people as it tore apart homes and businesses, ripped into a high school and caused severe damage to one of the two hospitals in the city, officials said Monday.
As many as a quarter of the buildings in the southwest Missouri city have suffered major or significant damage, according to fire and emergency management officials.
Parts of the city were unrecognizable, according to Steve Polley, a storm chaser from Kansas City, Missouri, who described the damage from the Sunday night tornado as "complete devastation."
Joplin Fire Chief Mitch Randles said he believes people were still trapped in buildings Monday morning. Authorities warned the death toll was likely to rise.
Complicating the situation, broken natural gas lines caused fires overnight throughout the city of 50,500, Gov. Jay Nixon said.
"It's going to be a stark view as people see dawn rise in Joplin," he said.The tornado struck shortly before 6 p.m. Sunday. It overturned 10 tractor-trailers on Interstate 44 as it barreled through the town, a major trucking center.
"The particular area that the tornado went through is just like the central portion of the city, and it's very dense in terms of population," Joplin Emergency Management Director Keith Stammer said on CNN's "American Morning."
A 1/2- to 1-mile stretch of the city was affected, including residential and commercial districts, city spokeswoman Lynn Onstot said.
Aerial footage from CNN affiliate KOTV showed houses reduced to lumber and smashed cars sitting atop heaps of wood. Some structures were engulfed in flames.
Amber Gonzales was driving through southwest Missouri when she heard tornado warnings on the radio. She took refuge at a gas station before getting back on the road and seeing the aftermath of what she narrowly missed.
At a shopping center, she saw people pulling people from rubble and rushing them to the hospital as overwhelmed emergency workers were unable to reach everyone in need.
"I saw an older woman taken on the back of a truck bed, speeding down the road," Gonzales said. "I can't get the lady out of my mind. ... I don't know if she made it."
Nixon dispatched a specialized search-and-rescue team to the city, along with 100 National Guard troops and state troopers from other parts of the state. City officials said they were being supported by at least 40 public safety agencies from Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri.
Mike O'Connell, spokesman for the Missouri Department of Public Safety, said Sunday night that authorities were trying to get additional search-and-rescue teams to the area.
"The priority is to get every available resource there ... as quickly as possible," Onstot said. The Red Cross has established a shelter at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin and was offering shuttle service to bring people there, she said.
St. John's Regional Medical Center in Joplin was hit directly by the tornado and suffered significant structural damage, city officials said. CNN affiliate KSHB said there were reports of fires throughout the hospital.
One facade of the building made of glass was completely blown out, and authorities evacuated the medical center, said Ray Foreman, a meteorologist with CNN affiliate KODE in Joplin. Makeshift triage centers were set up in tents outside, witness Bethany Scutti said. Patients were being evacuated to Springfield, Missouri and other medical centers, officials said.
Residents 70 miles away from Joplin in Dade County, Missouri, found X-rays from St. John's in their driveways, said Foreman, indicating the size and power of the storm.
Pastor Jim Marcum of Citywide Christian Fellowship church said he was delivering a sermon to about 100 people when a man jumped in and said, "It's coming this way."
"I didn't know which was louder, us praying or the wind outside," Marcum said late Sunday. He said those inside the church could feel the pressure of the wind.
"We were praying to be spared. I just thank God," Marcum said.
After the storm left, church members went out to help.
"Every time people would leave and go out to help as part of a search and rescue, people would return and they would be emotional," Marcum said. "We have one couple still at the church late into the night because their home was completely destroyed. They don't have a home to go to."
The tornado was part of a line of severe weather that swept across the Midwest on Sunday, prompting tornado watches and warnings that stretched from Wisconsin to Texas. High winds and possible tornadoes struck Minneapolis and other parts of Minnesota, leaving at least one person dead and injuring nearly two dozen others, police said.
Elsewhere, reports of tornadoes came in from Forest Lake, north of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, and near Harmony, more than 120 miles to the south. In Minneapolis, witnesses reported numerous downed trees and neighborhoods without power.
Minneapolis police spokeswoman Sara Dietrich said the storm left one fatality, with 22 people reported hurt.
LeDale Davis, who lives on the north side of Minneapolis, told CNN, "This is the first time we can remember a tornado touched down in this area. They aren't usually in the heart of the city."Forecasters said the system that struck Minnesota was separate from another storm that struck eastern Kansas on Saturday, killing one person and damaging or destroying hundreds of homes there.
President Barack Obama issued a statement Sunday night expressing his "deepest condolences to the families of all those who lost their lives in the tornadoes and severe weather that struck Joplin, Missouri, as well as communities across the Midwest today."
"We commend the heroic efforts by those who have responded and who are working to help their friends and neighbors at this very difficult time," Obama said. He said the Federal Emergency Management Agency is working with state and local officials to aid in response and recovery efforts.
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