In today's (Tuesday) newspaper, there was a picture of the BK (EC?) with the caption that the tornado relocated the ship to the hospital parking lot, and didn't set it down gently. If the engine were running, I would have thought the head would show more damage. (I tried to post the pic, but the procedure I read did not work.)
I e-mailed my instructor, who used to fly EMS in Joplin for that same company, and has BK time. He currently flies a 206 for ENG, and I assumed he would have flown to the site to take video for broadcast. Here's his response:
"We did fly down there yesterday. Very difficult with all the complications of: more weather coming through, a nasty ATC guy and his TFR that pushed us up to 3500', and we are flying a spare aircraft not equipped with what we normally have.
I don't think the Medflight aircraft was running, it would be a very different damage pattern (ie. The transmission/rotor head would have separated) Given the type and severity of damage surrounding the hospital the wind snapping off rotor blades would have been no big deal.
It was the most stunning damage I have ever seen from a tornado, particularly because it slammed perfectly into such a densely populated area.
I had a crash pad down there near a pretty busy main intersection (20th and Connecticut) virtually everything in the 4 blocks surrounding that intersection is gone! Houses,trees,poles,commercial buildings etc.
Incredible."
The report today was 122 dead (so far), and just as shockingly, 1500 missing. Because many buildings had the roof collapse, there are likely many still buried under rubble.