Mo. woman dies when told of dad's tornado death

JOPLIN, Mo. - A 54-year-old Missouri woman has died after suffering a heart attack when told of her father's death in the Joplin tornado.

Newton County Coroner Mark Bridges says the woman who died Tuesday didn't immediately learn of her father's death in the historic storm that has killed more than 120 people. He did not know her father's age or the circumstances of the man's death.

Bridges identified the woman as a schoolteacher and resident of nearby Webb City who attended church in Joplin.

The coroner said the death is considered a storm-related casualty even though the woman was not directly killed by the tornado.

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Meanwhile, the search for missing victims of Joplin's lethal twister inched forward methodically on Wednesday, with city leaders refusing to abandon hope that they would find more survivors even as rescuers prepared to go over ground searched as many as three times already.

The death toll ticked upward to at least 122, with 750 people hurt, from a mighty twister that the National Weather Service said was an EF5, the strongest rating assigned to tornadoes, with winds of more than 200 mph.

"We are still in a search-and-rescue mode," said Mark Rohr, Joplin's city manager. "I want to emphasize that."

Missy Epperson heads a team of 13 volunteers and rescue dogs from Illinois. She also searched for victims at World Trade Center after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005.

"This is Katrina without the water," Epperson told CBS News correspondent Don Teague.

Even as Joplin limped forward, violent weather struck again, killing at least five in Oklahoma, two in Arkansas and two more in Kansas. Late-night tornado sirens had Joplin's residents ducking for cover again before the storm brushed past without serious problems.

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Shadowing the rescue work in the southwest Missouri city of 50,000 people was uncertainty over just how many survivors remained to be found. Nine people have been rescued since Sunday's disaster, including two on Tuesday, but authorities have hesitated to say how many people are unaccounted for. They also said many were believed to have simply left the area safely.

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