Thunderstorms, Tornadoes Leave 27 Dead
By KRISTIN M. HALL, Associated Press Writer
NEWBERN, Tenn. - Thunderstorms packing tornadoes and hail as big as softballs ripped through eight states, killing at least 27 people, injuring scores and destroying hundreds of homes in the South and Midwest.
Tennessee was hit hardest, with tornadoes striking five western counties Sunday and killing 23 people, including an infant and his grandparents and a family of four.
Most of the deaths were along a 25-mile path stretching from Newbern, about 80 miles northeast of Memphis, to Bradford, officials said. The Highway Patrol sent teams with search dogs to the area Monday to check what remained of damaged homes and businesses for anyone who might be trapped in the rubble.
Betty Sisk grabbed her son and daughter, age 10 and 13, and took cover in a closet until the twister blew their house apart and threw them into the yard.
"By the time the sirens started going off, it was at our back door," Sisk said Monday. "I didn't hear a train sound, I heard a roaring."
Nothing remained of Sisk's wood-frame home Monday but the concrete steps. A nearby house was destroyed and Sisk said she had been told the elderly couple who lived there were dead. Another neighbor's home was blown about 30 feet off its foundation.
Severe thunderstorms, many producing tornadoes, also struck parts of Iowa, Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, Ohio, Illinois and Indiana. Strong wind was blamed or at least three deaths in Missouri. A clothing store collapsed in southern Illinois, killing one man.
The weather service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said it had preliminary reports of 63 tornadoes.
Among the dead in Tennessee was a baby, one of 15 people killed in Dyer County, said Coleman Foss, CEO of Dyersburg Regional Medical Center. Patty Williams of the Johnson Funeral Home identified the child as Lucas Simpson, and said his grandparents who had been babysitting him were also killed by the storm.
In Gibson County, a family of four — both parents and their two children — were among eight victims of the storm, officials said.
Tennessee Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Leanne Durm said 17 other people were hospitalized in critical condition.
Although the death toll was higher in Dyer County, the worst reports of damage were coming from Gibson County, Durm said. Bradford reported 1,200 damaged structures, including the police station, while there were 300 damaged buildings in Rutherford and 150 in the city of Dyer, she said.
Newbern alderman Robert Hart said witnesses described the tornado that hit his town as being "almost a mile wide."
"It's amazing some folks even survived when you look at the destruction," Hart told WCMT radio.
About a half-dozen tornadoes struck Arkansas and one destroyed nearly half of the town of Marmaduke, according to a fire department official.
"Almost every single structure in Marmaduke has minor to moderate damage but almost 50 percent of it is totally destroyed," Franks said. Much of the town also was damaged by a tornado in 1997.
At Lafe, Ark., eight miles east of Marmaduke, Dean Rollings said he and two other men watched the tornadoes approach.
"We stood in the parking lot and watched the clouds spin, coming from two different directions," Rollings told The Jonesboro Sun. "Then, we could hear the roaring sound. As we stood in the door, the winds picked up debris, and we saw the other one come in another direction within minutes."
Hail 4 inches in diameter slammed right through the roof of one mobile home in Arkansas, weather service meteorologist Newton Skiles said.
About 30 miles from Newbern, a tornado caused extensive damage to the southeast Missouri city of Caruthersville, although Mayor Diane Sayre said there were no known deaths in the city of 6,700.
"It destroyed just about everything," said Pemiscot County dispatcher Dorothy Hale.
An estimated 1,000 to 1,500 families were displaced, said emergency official Bill Pippins.
"We've got a damage path about a half mile wide," Pippins said.
One Kentucky county declared a state of emergency early Monday as rescue workers struggled to get to rural areas where roads were blocked by power lines and trees.
"We're concerned that there's a lot of hidden back roads that are hard to get to," said Matt Snorton, Christian County's emergency management director.
There were no immediate reports of tornadoes in Ohio, but the state was ripped by high wind.
"In every county in southwest Ohio, there has been some type of damage," said Myron Padgett, a weather service meteorologist in Wilmington.
In mid-March, tornadoes spun off by another huge storm system killed nine people in Missouri and injured dozens in Illinois. Initial reports indicated that system was responsible for more than 100 twisters in five states from Oklahoma to Illinois, the National Weather Service said.
___
On the Net:
Storm Prediction Center: http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/
You have read this article with the title Well Blow Me Down. You can bookmark this page URL http://thebohemianbunny.blogspot.com/2006/04/well-blow-me-down.html. Thanks!
