Engineers examine thrashed hospital

By NOMAAN MERCHANT | Published: May 26, 2011 Comment on this article

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JOPLIN, Mo. — Rescue and recovery work in Joplin was shadowed by uncertainty Wednesday as crews still hoping to find survivors combed areas that had already been searched several times, and engineers entered the battered Joplin hospital where the tornado killed five to see if it could be salvaged.

photo - Firefighters pack up their gear Monday outside the St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo. A destructive tornado moved through the city Sunday evening, killing at least 125 people and injuring hundreds more. AP Photo

Firefighters pack up their gear Monday outside the St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo. A destructive tornado moved through the city Sunday evening, killing at least 125 people and injuring hundreds more. AP Photo

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Officials at St. John’s Regional Medical Center sent structural engineers into the nine-story building hit squarely by the twister to see whether it could be saved.

“It truly was like a bomb went off almost on every floor,” Chief Executive Gary Pulsipher said.

Lynn Britton, president and chief executive of Sisters of Mercy Health Systems, praised the “heroic” efforts by staff and others who helped in the storm’s aftermath and said a temporary hospital would be running near the site by Sunday. Patient information was safe after the hospital moved from paper to electronic records in May.

Social networks were the tool of choice for many people trying to track the missing — or to let their loved ones know they were safe.