More Deaths Reported In Violent Weather Across U.S.

Another wave of severe weather is expected from the Deep South through the Great Lakes region, and storms could spawn tornadoes in a number of areas. That's after violent weather ripped through the South for a second straight night, killing at least eight people, damaging homes and causing widespread destruction and injuries.

The latest round of severe weather Tuesday night and early Wednesday came a day after a series of powerful storms killed 10 people in Arkansas and one in Mississippi.

A firefighter (left) covers the survivor of a tornado that destroyed her mobile home east of Ben Wheeler, Texas, on Tuesday. She was shaken and had some minor bruises but otherwise escaped without serious injuries.
Enlarge Jaime R. Carrero/AP

A firefighter (left) covers the survivor of a tornado that destroyed her mobile home east of Ben Wheeler, Texas, on Tuesday. She was shaken and had some minor bruises but otherwise escaped without serious injuries.

Jaime R. Carrero/AP

A firefighter (left) covers the survivor of a tornado that destroyed her mobile home east of Ben Wheeler, Texas, on Tuesday. She was shaken and had some minor bruises but otherwise escaped without serious injuries.

A police officer on a camping trip was killed shielding his daughter when a tree limb fell on their tent in a northern Mississippi state park. The victim, from Covington, La., was not immediately identified.

"He covered his daughter with his body when the storm came through to protect her. A tree limb fell and hit him in the head, killing him. The daughter was not hurt. She was still at the campground waiting for family to arrive," Choctaw County, Miss., Coroner Keith Coleman said.

Also in Mississippi, a man was crushed in his mobile home when a tree fell during the storm, and a truck driver died after hitting a downed tree on a state highway. None of the victims have been identified.

In Alabama, where the governor declared a state of emergency, one person was killed in the northern part of the state when a tree fell on a car. Two people died in St. Clair County in central Alabama and another in Jackson County in the northeast, though emergency officials did not say how.

And in Arkansas, the Department of Emergency Management confirmed early Wednesday that one person died in a storm in Sharp County. Officials didn't know exactly how the person died or whether a tornado had touched down in the area.

In Louisiana, police were investigating whether two deaths in Monroe were storm-related. The body of a woman was found early Wednesday in a vehicle that had become trapped in a flooded underpass, and the body of a man was found later on a flooded street.

Severe storms in northwest Georgia downed trees, blew out windows in a hospital and tore off part of a school roof. Much of north and central Georgia was bracing for another round of thunderstorms later Wednesday. A tornado watch had been issued.

In eastern Tennessee, what appeared to be a tornado struck just outside Chattanooga in Tiftonia, at the base of the tourist peak Lookout Mountain. Tops were snapped off trees and insulation and metal roof panels littered the ground.

The National Weather Service had issued a high-risk warning for severe weather from northeast of Memphis to just northeast of Dallas and covering a large swath of Arkansas. It last issued such a warning on April 16, when dozens of tornadoes hit North Carolina and killed 21 people.

Emergency management officials in Alabama said two suspected tornadoes touched down in Marshall County, about 70 miles northeast of Birmingham, causing widespread injuries and damage.

"There are people trapped in mobile homes, in vehicles. We've got trees down all over, power lines down all over. It's all over the county," said Phil Mayer, working in the county emergency management office.

Cleanup begins in a Vilonia, Ark., neighborhood Tuesday after a tornado struck the area late Monday. The storm system killed 10 people in Arkansas and one in Mississippi.
Enlarge Danny Johnston/AP

Cleanup begins in a Vilonia, Ark., neighborhood Tuesday after a tornado struck the area late Monday. The storm system killed 10 people in Arkansas and one in Mississippi.

Danny Johnston/AP

Cleanup begins in a Vilonia, Ark., neighborhood Tuesday after a tornado struck the area late Monday. The storm system killed 10 people in Arkansas and one in Mississippi.

The weather service didn't immediately confirm twister damage, but forecasters had issued several tornado warnings and said winds blew as hard as 70 mph, just short of hurricane force.

High winds also damaged a hangar at the Birmingham airport.

Dozens of tornado warnings were issued in Arkansas throughout the night. Strong winds peeled part of the roof off of a medical building next to a hospital in West Memphis, near the Tennessee border, but no one was inside.

At least one person was injured when a storm slammed through the tiny town of Edom some 75 miles east of Dallas late Tuesday, said Fire Chief Eddie Wood. Witnesses described seeing what they thought was a tornado rolling the woman's mobile home with her inside.

A video shot by the Tyler Morning Telegraph showed emergency responders covering the injured woman to shield her from rain and hail. Her mobile home was reduced to a pile of debris in the road.

"We have multiple houses damaged or destroyed," said Chuck Allen, Van Zandt County emergency management spokesman. He said he would survey the area by helicopter Wednesday to get an accurate count.

Ted Ryan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth, said at least one tornado almost certainly hit between Edom and the town of Van to the north. He said the weather service would send a team to the area Wednesday to assess the damage and determine the strength of the storm.

A Map Of Areas Affected By Flooding

At daybreak Wednesday, residents on the outskirts of the small, rural community started to clear up the damage from the storm. The area was littered with uprooted trees, some had split in half and others landed on homes.

In West Tennessee, heavy rain prompted the evacuation of a military base near Memphis. Military officials moved 122 personnel from the naval support base at Millington to hotels after a stream began flooding a low-lying section of the base, WMC-TV reported.

The latest round of storms moved through as communities in much of the region struggled with flooding and damage from earlier twisters.

In Missouri, communities were coping with rivers flooding from relentless rain. The southern part of the state had 15 inches of rain over four days. An overnight storm dumped another 2 inches on Poplar Bluff, where the Black River poured over spots along the earthen levee that protects the town. About 1,000 homes were evacuated Monday when the river spilled over the levee and flooded low-lying neighborhoods and farmland.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon deployed the Missouri National Guard to help with water rescues. More than 150 people were plucked from porches, attics, and rooftops between Poplar Bluff and the neighboring town of Qulan, some 15 miles downstream. Butler County Sheriff's Lt. Brian Evans described the scene as "surreal."

"It's the biggest lake I've ever seen, I guess. The bottom part of the county is all flat and it's farmland. And it's pretty much covered," he said. An estimated 7,000 people live in the flooded area.

Poplar Bluff police Capt. Mike McClain said Wednesday that the levee had held up overnight and that there had been no reports of injuries.

A Life-Saving Early Warning?

There were six deaths reported in flooding across Arkansas, and four more people were killed in Vilonia, just north of Little Rock, where a tornado Monday night ripped the roof off the grocery store, flattened homes and tossed vehicles into the air.

An early warning may have saved resident Lisa Watson's life. She packed up her three children and was speeding away from the Black Oak Ranch subdivision when she looked to her left and saw the twister approach. Two of her neighbors died in their mobile homes, and a visiting couple who took shelter in a metal shipping container where the husband stored tools died when the container was blown at least 150 feet into a creek.

Jimmy Talley said his brother, David, told his mother that he and his wife, Katherine, were leaving the mobile home they'd been staying in because they thought the container would be safe.

"He said, `I love you, Mom,' and that's the last that anybody heard from him," Jimmy Talley said.

The tornado also reduced the mobile home the couple had been staying in to a pile of boards and belongings. The other victims were Charles Mitchell, 55, and a 63-year-old man whose name has not yet been released.

Holding 'The Doorknob In One Hand And Kids In The Other'

Faulkner County Judge Preston Scroggin said the tornado tore through an area 3 miles wide and 15 miles long, and he thought more people might have died if the residents hadn't been receiving warnings about a possible outbreak of tornadoes since the weekend and the local weather office hadn't issued a warning almost 45 minutes before the twister hit Vilonia.

Sally Lanham of Vilonia said a twister went right through her front yard.

"You could see the rotation in the cloud. And we could see debris flying. But it missed the house. It took the tool shed, knocked down huge trees," she said.

Elsewhere in Arkansas, a tornado did not spare the house where Richard Bass and his family were taking shelter.

"Listened to, uh, windows shattering, doors slamming, and then heard the roof go," Bass said. "And I just held onto the doorknob for dear life ? doorknob in one hand and kids in the other."

Jacob McCleland of member station KRCU reported for this story, which contains material from The Associated Press.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/04/27/135758810/deadly-storms-pound-south-for-2nd-straight-day?ft=1&f=1003

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