3 Dead In Midwest Twisters

South of Sedalia, Missouri, Sunday, a woman was killed when her mobile home fell on top of her during a tornado. Near St. Mary, also in Missouri, two other people died when their pickup truck was blown off the road and tossed under a propane tank. Twisters were also reported in Kansas, Illinois, Arkansas and Oklahoma.

Airplanes were knocked over at the downtown Kansas City airport and roofs were torn off homes, businesses, the University of Kansas and the Great Wolf Lodge Indoor Water Park.

Sunday's twisters came on the heels of another powerful storm that ripped through southern Missouri and southern Illinois Saturday night, destroying homes along a path of more than 20 miles.

The National Weather Service had not confirmed whether the thunderstorm was a tornado, but several weather spotters did report tornadoes to area television stations.

Sunday's storm also whipped up hail – some the size of baseballs - in several northwest Missouri counties including Clay, Ray, Cass, Bates and Linn counties.

A spokeswoman for the Kansas Adjutant General's office said emergency management officials declared Douglas County a local disaster after the storm hit Lawrence and the surrounding area about 8 a.m. Sunday.

The University of Kansas campus was littered with trees, roof tiles and window glass after several buildings, including Anschutz Library and the Chancellor's residence were damaged, said Joy Moser, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Adjutant General's Department.

The roof of the non-denominational Danforth Chapel, which has been the scene of thousands of weddings on campus, was nearly completely torn off.

The storm also left damage across Lawrence, with awnings and roofs destroyed all along Massachusetts Street, the main street through downtown. A building that houses a T-shirt company east of downtown Lawrence collapsed and spires were blown off the top of Plymouth Congregational Church, one of the oldest churches in the city.

James Patterson, 23, was asleep in his upstairs apartment when a sudden drop in pressure woke him about 8 a.m.

"It felt like I was in the tornado, if that's what it was," he said.

In a small trailer court in north Lawrence, Rhonda Burns was trying to figure out how to recover after two trees fell through her trailer early Sunday. She said her cousin was walking from one end of the trailer when the trees came through, missing her bedroom by inches.

"If the wind had shifted that tree just a few inches, I wouldn't be talking to you," said Burns, who said she and her cousin had been homeless before moving into the trailer.

"We get a free week in a hotel, then I guess we're homeless again," she said.

Severe damage also was reported Sunday morning in Wyandotte County, where winds sucked off part of the roof at the Great Wolf Lodge water resort, tore roofs off numerous homes and blew windows out of the Indian Springs Shopping Mall in Kansas City, Kansas.

At Kansas City International Airport, the storm lifted a cargo container off the airfield and blew it into several vehicles, said spokesman Joe McBride. One Southwest Airlines flight was delayed during the hailstorm, and the power went off briefly in Terminal A.

At the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport, McBride said several private airplanes parked inside a hangar were damaged when gusts blew off the structure's door.

"There was damage of aircraft out on the airfield, too. They were tied down and some of them spun around," said McBride.

The strong winds and hail also caused damage in Leavenworth County in Kansas before moving across the state line, where it continued its destructive but non-lethal path in northwest Missouri. A high school in Orrick, in Ray County, lost part of its roof and other damage was reported in Carroll County.

The deadly twisters were part of a long line of stormy weather that stretched from the southern Plains up the Ohio Valley.

The worst damage was along a rural stretch of Highway 61 near St. Mary in Perry County, Mo., about 80 miles south of St. Louis.

Virginia Moore said she heard television warnings about the tornado and hurried her family into the basement. Moments later, the twister hit, knocking over trees in her yard but leaving the home with only minor damage.

"First we heard a little bit of hail, and then the whistle of the wind. Then just like that, it was over. Just a little too close for comfort," Moore said.

Also near St. Mary, mobile homes were tossed and a brick ranch house was split in half.

Across the Mississippi River in Illinois, a tornado damaged several homes and businesses in the small town of Fults, and injured one person.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol said the tornado near St. Mary had wind of 113 mph to 206 mph. Softball-sized hail caused more damage and heavy rain prompted flash flood warnings in southern Missouri. The heaviest rainfall was 3 to 4 inches about 100 miles east of St. Louis in Illinois.

In Missouri's Jefferson County, just south of St. Louis, high wind struck a new subdivision, destroying seven homes. High winds tore the roof off a McDonald's restaurant in the tourist town of Branson.

In Oklahoma, twisters touched down Sunday night near the towns of Oaks and Kansas, and in northern Delaware County, damaging homes and tearing down power lines.

The Delaware County storm was part of a series of severe storms that moved through northeast Oklahoma on Sunday night, dropping hail up to more than one inch in diameter in some areas including Tulsa before moving on to Bentonville and Centerton, both in Arkansas.

Several homes suffered heavy damage in the College Park neighborhood of Bentonville. The roof was totally stripped from one house, leaving support trusses behind, while the attached garage of a nearby home had been destroyed.

Across the street, homes were undamaged.

Greg Kospar, 41, said he was awakened by his wife shortly before the storm hit. It came and went in the next 2 or 3 minutes, he said.

"It was over before you knew it," Kospar said. "The house is gone. It sucks, it sucks big time."

The Kospars' house lost its garage and much of its roof.

Bentonville Fire Department Battalion Chief Kevin Boydston said all of the two-dozen or so houses on the street where the Kospars live had been checked, and there were no reports of injuries.

"With this type of damage, I would say the residents in this portion of the subdivision were very lucky," Boydston said.

A message spray-painted on the garage door of a house with only minor damage supported Boydston's assessment with reassurance about the home's occupants.

"All OK!" proclaimed the 18-inch-high letters.