Deadly Storms Kill 23 In Midwest
April 3, 2006
(CBS/AP) Thunderstorms battered eight states across the Midwest with tornadoes and hail as big as softballs, killing at least 23 people, injuring scores and destroying hundreds of homes.
Tennessee was hardest hit, with tornadoes striking along a 25-mile path through five western counties Sunday, the National Weather Service said. State troopers sent teams into the area Monday with search dogs, Highway Patrol spokeswoman Melissa McDonald said.
Betty Sisk said she and her 13-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son tried to take cover but were thrown into the yard as their Newbern home was shredded by the storm.
"By the time the (tornado) sirens started going off, it was at our back door," Sisk said Monday. "I didn't hear a train sound, I heard a roaring."
She and the children ran into a closet until the twister blew their house apart and threw them into the yard, where they huddled until the storm passed. Nothing remained of Sisk's wood-frame home Monday but the concrete steps.
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 and injuring several others.
People inside the K & G clothing store say they had very little warning, just a wall of windows shaking, then shattering before the front of the store caved in, reports CBS News correspondent Jim Acosta.
"As soon as we got inside, the windows started to shimmer, to shake, and that's when I yelled at my wife and son and everybody in the store to get back to the back of the building, because I was afraid a tornado was coming," customer Tom Lewis said on CBS News' The Early Show.
"By the time we reached the rear of the building, that's when the wall collapsed, right where the cash registers are," Lewis said.
Most of the Tennessee deaths were reported around the Gibson County towns of Bradford and Dyer, said James Brown, assistant emergency management director for the county.
In Newbern, the twister carved a path through a cluster of homes near the Jimmy Dean Foods plant north of Newbern, where several victims died. The plant, which makes breakfast sausages and other food products, was also damaged, a security guard said. A line of trees were snapped off about 9 feet above the ground.
About a half-dozen tornadoes struck Arkansas and one destroyed nearly half of the town of Marmaduke, according to a fire department official.
"There are people unaccounted for, but we don't even know if they were out of town yet," acting fire commander Chris Franks said Monday as crews prepared to sweep through the town to search for victims and survivors.
Officials limited access to the town in northeastern Arkansas because of a ruptured natural gas line.
"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 state of emergency was declared in the southeast Missouri city of Caruthersville, which was heavily damaged. Mayor Diane Sayre said there were no known deaths in the city of 6,700, but Randal Lee, a sheriff's department dispatcher, said part of the town was wiped out.
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.
Severe thunderstorms also struck Indianapolis as thousands of fans left a free John Mellencamp concert that was part of the NCAA's Final Four weekend.
In Ohio, the storms ripped off the roof and chimney from a home in Warren County northeast of Cincinnati. Downed trees and power lines were widespread.
"In every county in southwest Ohio, there has been some type of damage," said Myron Padgett, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wilmington.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/03/national/main1461963.shtml?source=RSS&attr=HOME_1461963
Most of the hailstones were slightly larger than golf balls. I wasn't able to get home before the storm hit, and my poor car paid a dear price. 
