Storms kill at least 28 in several states

Updated 11:43 PM ET

(CBS/AP) HENRYVILLE, Ind. - Powerful storms leveled small towns in southern Indiana, transforming entire blocks of homes into piles of debris, tossing school buses into a home and a restaurant and causing destruction so severe it was difficult to tell what was once there. As night fell, dazed residents shuffled through town, some looking for relatives, while rescue workers searched the rubble for survivors. Without power, the only light in town came from cars that crawled down the streets.

From the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes, the storms touched nearly all walks of life. A fire station was flattened. Roofs were ripped off schools. A prison fence was knocked down and scores of homes and businesses were destroyed. At least 28 people were killed, including 14 in Indiana and 12 in Kentucky, and dozens of others were hurt in the second deadly tornado outbreak this week.

It wasn't immediately clear how many people were missing.

The threat of tornadoes was expected to last until late Friday for parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana and Ohio. Forecasters at the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center said the massive band of storms put 10 million people at high risk of dangerous weather.

"We knew this was coming. We were watching the weather like everyone else," said Clark County, Ind., Sheriff Danny Rodden. "This was the worst case scenario. There's no way you can prepare for something like this."

In Henryville, the scene was eerie and somewhat chaotic. Cell phones and landlines were not working. Hundreds of firefighters and police zipped around town. Power lines were down and cars were flipped over. People walked down the street with shopping carts full of water and food, handing it out to whoever was in need.

Terry Brishaber said his uncle's mobile home was gone.

"I don't see any remnants. I don't know where it's at," he said.

Aerial footage from a TV news helicopter flying over Henryville showed numerous wrecked houses, some with their roofs torn off and many surrounded by debris. The video shot by WLKY in Louisville, Ky., also showed a mangled school bus protruding from the side of a one-story building and dozens of overturned semis strewn around the smashed remains of a truck stop.

"I'm a storm chaser," said Susie Renner, of Henryville, "and I have never been this frightened before."

Andy Bell was guarding a demolished garage until his friend could get to the business to retrieve some valuable tools Friday night. He looked around at the devastation, pointing to what were now empty lots between a Catholic church and a Marathon station about a block away.

"There were houses from the Catholic church on the corner all the way to the Marathon station. And now it's just a pile of rubble, all the way up," he said. "It's just a great ..."

His voice trailed off, before he finished: "Wood sticks all the way up."

An Associated Press reporter in Henryville said the high school was destroyed and the second floor had been ripped off the middle school next door. Classroom chairs were scattered on the ground outside, trees were uprooted and cars had huge dents from baseball-sized hail. Authorities said school was in session when the tornado hit, but there were only minor injuries there.

Classroom chairs were scattered on the ground outside, trees were uprooted and cars had huge dents from baseball-sized hail.

Ruth Simpson, of nearby Salem, came to the demolished town right after the storm hit, looking for relatives that she hadn't been able to find.

"I can't find them," she said, starting to cry, and then walked away.

The rural town about 20 miles north of Louisville is the home of Indiana's oldest state forest and the birthplace of Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Col. Harland Sanders.

Ernie Hall, 68, weathered the tornado inside his tiny home near the high school. Hall says he saw the twister coming down the road toward his house, whipping up debris in its path.

"I knew there was some bad weather out in the Midwest that was coming this way, but you don't count on a tornado hitting here that bad," he said.

He and his wife ran into an interior room and used a mattress to block the door as the tornado struck. It destroyed his car and blew out the picture window overlooking his porch.

"There was no mistaking what it was," he said.

The threat of tornadoes was expected to last until late Friday for parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana and Ohio. Forecasters at the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Oklahoma said the massive band of storms was putting 10 million people in several states at high risk of dangerous weather.

"Maybe five times a year we issue what is kind of the highest risk level for us at the Storm Prediction Center," forecaster Corey Mead said. "This is one of those days."

CBS News severe weather consultant and chief meteorologist for CBS4 in Miami, David Bernard, explained why there are so many tornadoes so early. "We have a tremendous amount of warm air, a lot further north for so early in the season than we normally see, and then we have a powerful jet stream coming out of the Rockies, and it's splitting: One part of the jet stream going to the north, the other one going to the south, and in between that split you're get an incredible amount of air rising in the atmosphere, and that can lead to some very large storms, just like were seeing right now.

Watch CBS4 Miami meteorologist David Bernard explain the cause of the severe weather below:

FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate issued a statement on Friday expressing condolences to those affected by the weather. He added: "In response to these latest storms, we have personnel assembled and on alert, should the affected states request additional assistance...We strongly encourage residents in impacted areas to listen carefully to instructions from their local officials and take the recommended protective measures to safeguard life and property while response efforts continue."

Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport was closed temporarily because of debris on the runways, but one of three runways had reopened by late afternoon. A fire station was flattened and several barns were toppled in northern Kentucky across the Ohio River from the badly damaged Indiana towns.

Terry Sebastian, a spokesman for Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, said five people were killed in two counties Friday. A coroner in the southeastern Kentucky's Laurel County said late Friday four more died in the storms there, bringing the total number of weather deaths in the state for the day to at least nine.

One person also died in Ohio. Emergency officials in Lee County, Va., said crews were searching for a man and woman after a tornado reportedly destroyed a home there.

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[take_a_number]

Our government RUSHED 240,000 tons of food and other materials (we will never know what they consists of) to north korea. This was on a PROMISE that they might THINK... about scaling back their nuclear program. Didn't they just just threaten So. Korea again?
Wonder how long it will take washington to offer LOW INTEREST LOANS or relief to the folks with no place to live and no way to pay it back.

[Raptorsmasher]

This has nothing to do with red state blue state. Our climate is changing. As it heats up, there will be more tornados. Take last April for instance. How may tornados were there that month? The last I checked in was in the hundreds. We need to come together and help our countrymen through this difficult time.

[kevjustice]

we red states want no aid. fox tells us govt aid is bad. even our wives who also are our sisters tell us aid is no good. we red states hicks are the same hicks that said we don't want no govt communist health ins and to stay away from our medicare/medicaid.

[kevjustice]

we hicks in dem red states want no government aid. fox tells us hicks govt aid is bad stuff unless it's corporate (price support, etc) aid and tax cuts fer our billionaires.

[MagnaCartaUK]

Having seen the moving scenes of misery and destruction here, it's realy quite difficult to know what to say. Obviously first thoughts go to the bereaved, but also to all those people who've lost their homes, livelihoods, and well, just about everything else. If you're affected, many in Britain are thinking of you. No-one, but no-one, deserves to have this dumped on them. Keep those heads up. So very sorry to see all this happen, but if you get the chance, give the weather the 'finger'. I think that's the right expression!

[inmom63]

Hard to believe all the negative comments here directed to these people whose only crime is living in a particular state where a tornado leveled their homes and killed some of their friends and relatives. What a heartless bunch you are.

[madjek]

NO NO NO Federal aid for govt hating red states. Let rush support em.

[IMP578]

Why doesn't the Air Force send their medics there to practice instead of torturing pigs to death!

We are starting to pay for ruining our planet.

[train99]

It's been a warm winter in North America (only) with very weak cold air from Canada to offset the early influx of heating from Mexico and the gulf.
The result: Early tornado season.
That's all.

[smirk5]

Luckily, these are down home real Americans that will pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. They won't ask for any federal aid at all because they are real Americans.
Just kidding. Of course they'll take handouts.

[retiredgustav]

Obviously you have never been in a real diaster , because you don't know what you are talking about.