Photo credit: Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press

A series of turbulent and deadly storms swept through the Midwest on Sunday as a powerful tornado slammed into Joplin, Mo., ripping the top off a hospital, shearing parts of the roof off a high school and turning major retail stores into heaps of rubble and twisted metal.

A coroner’s official reported at least 30 people dead in Joplin, according to Reuters news agency, but the tornado’s rampage through the middle of the southwestern Missouri town of 50,000 left officials concerned that the number could be much higher.

Authorities say the tornado also caused the roofs of two city fire stations to collapse.

NOAA officials said the Joplin storm, at times three-quarters of a mile wide, was the deadliest single tornado to hit the United States since 1953.

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