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[Updated at 10:52 a.m. ET] At least 89 people died from a tornado that tore through Joplin, Missouri, on Sunday, City Manager Mark Rohr said.
Here's what some of the survivors experienced:
Ryan Atkinson – Documenting other damage, waiting to see his own
Ryan Atkinson, a sports writer for the Joplin Grove, was at work when the tornado hit last night.
He and another reporter ventured over to St. John's Regional Medical Center within an hour of the tornado and were shocked to see all the devastation. In the video he sent to CNN iReport you see hundreds of damaged homes across the street from the hospital.
Click to watch video

“I was in disbelief. I’ve lived in this area of Midwest my whole life. You grow up with tornado warnings and confirmed funnel touchdowns all the time, but this time it struck home. We were just expecting some damage, maybe some trees down, but when we drove up on that area, it was just shock.”
Atkinson hasn’t even seen his home yet, but his parents checked on it and told him that the roof is gone and it’s not livable. He is heading over to his house now to see it for the first time.
Zach Tusinger – “Everybody’s going to know people who are dead”

Zach Tusinger, 26, an attorney in Joplin, Missouri, lost his aunt and uncle in the tornado. They lived five blocks from St. Johns Hospital.
Tusinger heard the noise of a freight train from his parents house but there wasn't enough room in the garage for his car so he took of to his loft on the other side of town. On top of the same loft rooftop he took a picture of Irving Elementary School – which was now destroyed.
"The school was gone, there’s a Catholic church just to the west that was leveled," he said.
He posted the picture on Facebook – but he had no idea it would serve as a warning to his family and elicit their last words to him in response.

“My aunt was a pretty avid Facebooker and she posted about the time I was taking the picture … she posted, ‘Oh my god’ on Facebook," he said. "It's crazy because those are her last words."
“Everybody’s going to know people who are dead,” he says. “You could have probably dropped a nuclear bomb on the town and I don't think it would have done near as much damage as it did.”
Eddie Atwood – 'The whole horizon got flattened'

Eddie Atwood, 46, a freelance photographer and iReporter in Joplin, Missouri, who lives on the north side of town, said it all began with a lot of wind and hail.
“I just barely missed being right in the path of that tornado, like minutes from being there," he told CNN.
Atwood said it started looking so bad that he almost took refuge in a car wash.
"I decided not to and it was a real good thing because (the tornado) just tore it up.”
"There were power lines down all over the place … You could smell fuel and natural gas, there were fires starting all over the place, they [the National Guard] were trying to get everyone out," he said. "You couldn’t picked a worse part of town, it cut right through where the hospital was and houses after houses, apartments, it couldn’t have picked a worse place."
On Monday Atwood and a friend went to see the damage – as he walked along one road he could see exactly how the storm destroyed an entire area.
"I was walking down Main Street, everything was so razed over it was disorienting because some of the streets you couldn’t even tell where you were at. After living in Joplin all my life, it was like living in the Twilight Zone."
Debris was everywhere he said – except for a lone flying American flag.

"It just looks like a war zone. The whole horizon got flattened," he said. "It was a really tragic day, I’ve been here all my life, we’ve had some bad storms but nothing like this. It’s taken a significant toll on Joplin."
Rev. C.J. Campbell – House collapsed around me in '60 seconds'

Rev. C.J. Campbell was at home with his foster sister when the tornado, which he describes as an "evil monster vortex" hit his home at 5:55 p.m. CT.
"My foster sister and I were completely surrounded by a collapsed 1800 square feet house within 60 seconds," he told CNN.
Campbell described those moments as he experienced the tornado ravage his home:
"First began the low roar in the distance and then it got louder and louder until it sounded like 50 semi tractor-trailer trucks going 70 mph about 10 feet outside the front door," he said. "The floor began to vibrate and then shake very violently and then seemingly buckle."
"We thought we were going to be sucked up the chimney."
Despite the fear as it happened and his emotions after seeing the home destroyed, Campbell walked away with a positive attitude.
"I feel grateful to be able to talk to you," he told CNN.
Isaac Duncan – Huddled in store cooler prayers are silenced by storm
Click to watch video
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Isaac Duncan was nearby in Carl Junction, Missouri ,when he heard reports that the tornado was literally around the block. So he and a friend ran into the closest place they could find – a convenience store.
"When we went in the electricity was already out there and were about 20 people huddled down," Duncan told CNN. "Everyone was just deciding what to do."
Video shot inside the fridge shows little – it is dark and hard to see – but the screams and shrieking pleas for "Jesus, Jesus," "heavenly father," and "help" can be heard.
The tornado ripped through the store – and even part of the refrigerator.
"Basically the only thing left standing was the cooler that we were in," Duncan said. "Everything around it was gone. (The tornado) actually tore a few holes in the refrigerator. That's what we crawled out of."
Sara Ferguson – 'The houses are all gone'
Sara Ferguson was near Joplin's St. John's Medical Center after the storm hit.
“The houses are all gone. The medical buildings are gone,” she told The Joplin Globe. “(St. John’s hospital’s) windows have all been blown out. It was horrible. I couldn’t even take pictures on my phone. I was crying.”
Denise Neil and Jaime Green – "I kept thinking, ‘This can’t be happening.’”
Denise Neil and Jaime Green, a reporter and photographer for the Wichita Eagle, were driving along with Neil's 6-year-old daughter Lexi near the medical center when the storm hit.
"The rain was going in circles. The roofs of buildings were coming off," Neil said in a Eagle report. They pulled off the road and took cover in a carport of a medical building, according to the report.
“I was watching power lines come down and exploding as they hit the ground,” Neil was quoted as saying. “Jaime could see the roof above us start to go, but it never went. Jaime kept saying, ‘I’m scared.’ Lexi kept asking, ‘What’s happening?’ I kept thinking, ‘This can’t be happening.’”
Jeff Law – 'It's like Armageddon'
For many, the destruction was unimaginable.
Joplin resident Jeff Law gave this description to the Springfield News Leader.
"I've lived in this neighborhood my entire life, and I didn't know where I was. Everything was unrecognizable. Completely unrecognizable. It's like Armageddon," Law said.
The Wal-mart in Joplin was ripped apart.
“All of a sudden there was a big whoosh, and the ceiling started falling,” Justin Schlesselman, a security guard at the store, told the Globe. “People were freaking out and screaming for help.”
Schlesselman said he and other employees and customers freed those trapped by debris and left the wreckage of the store.
"I don’t know how many got out. I just know that everyone in our area did," he told the Globe.
Globe reporter Jeff Lehr told CNN affiliate KMBC-TV that he took shelter in a basement closet at the storm roared through.
"You could hear everything go. It tore the roof off my house, everybody's house. I came outside and there was nothing left," KMBC quoted him as saying.
"There were people wandering the streets, all mud covered," he said. "I'm talking to them, asking if they knew where their family is. Some of them didn't know, and weren't sure where they were. All the street markers were gone."

Via: This Just In