chokomoney.com

By Kevin Murphy

JOPLIN, Missouri |
Mon May 30, 2011 five:51pm EDT

JOPLIN, Missouri (Reuters) – Missouri officials continued on Monday the procedure of identifying the remains of bodies recovered from the devastating Joplin tornado and reduced the quantity of missing individuals to 29.

The Missouri Department of Public Safety stated Monday that 101 victims had been positively identified and their relatives had been notified, up from 87 Sunday.

Officials had reported 146 sets of human remains from the tornado, a number unchanged given that Sunday. There is a chance that the remains of 1 person are in more than 1 set, they have said.

Officials on Monday mentioned 29 folks remain unaccounted for, down from 43 Sunday. The official death toll was final reported at 139 as of Saturday.

Of the 101 who have been identified, 11 had been under the age of 18.

The tornado that hit Might 22 was rated an EF-five, or the strongest feasible, and was rated the deadliest single twister in the United States given that 1947.

President Barack Obama visited Joplin on Sunday, vowing to cut by way of federal red tape to assist with rebuild the city.

Some families have expressed frustration at the slow pace of identifying the victims and releasing the remains. Families have not been allowed to enter the morgue to view and identify the remains.

Authorities have defended that policy as needed to be sure that no mistakes are made.

Up to five,000 residents have registered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency for disaster aid, said Joplin City manager Mark Rohr.

Rohr stated about 3,000 volunteers are helping with the disaster clean-up effort. Significantly of the work is centered on clearing debris, such as cutting up felled trees and piling up damaged items from people’s houses.

(Reporting by Kevin Murphy. Writing by Mary Wisniewski. Editing by Peter Bohan)