Deadly Tornadoes Rip Through Missouri

(AP)  Violent storms tore through four Midwestern states, killing three people in northern Missouri, damaging dozens of homes and leaving thousands without power.

Kirksville apparently took the hardest hit Wednesday night. Police Detective Sgt. Ron Celian said about 30 to 40 homes were damaged, one was destroyed and an auto dealership sustained significant damage.

Lynne Sanders told the Kirksville Daily Express she took shelter in a bathtub while a tornado flipped one of her sheds, destroyed another and sucked up a barn while leaving the horses inside.

"It was just awful, simply awful," she said. "The whole house was just rocking."

Sullivan County Emergency Management director Rick Gardner said a woman was killed Wednesday night when what appeared to be a tornado struck a mobile home east of Milan in Sullivan County.

Two other people died in neighboring Adair County, said communications operator Tammy Babcock of the Missouri State Highway Patrol. She called all three deaths are tornado-related.

Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Brent Bernhardt said the Adair County sheriff flew over the area to inspect the damage and said in some places the tornado was only 500 feet wide.



"It was not wide," Bernhardt said. "It would be on the ground and then come back up and be on the ground again."

Photos: Missouri Tornadoes A fireman checks for occupants in what use to be a kitchen of a house that was hit by a tornado that touched down in Lakeside Estates Wednesday May 13, 2009 in Kirksville, Mo. (Photo: AP)

In Caddo County in southwest Oklahoma, a possible tornado damaged homes and businesses in Gracemont and Anadarko, authorities said.

Dozens of inmates were evacuated from the Caddo County jail because of a gas line break, said Caddo County Emergency Management Director Larry McDuffey.

In northeast Oklahoma, a 100 mph wind gust was recorded west of the Bartlesville airport in Washington County, authorities said. The high winds downed trees and power lines, with 8,000 power outages reported at one point.

Central Indiana saw wind gusts of up to 60 mph and street flooding was reported in Vincennes, Linton and Rockville, authorities said. Utilities reported 8,000 were without power in and around Indianapolis early Thursday.

In Illinois, a range of windy storms dumped as much as 3 inches of rain within 50 minutes. National Weather Service meteorologist Ed Shimon called the accumulation "unbelievable," comparing it to heavy rainfall in the tropics.

The storm was continuing in southern Illinois early Thursday, with lightning, heavy rain and strong wind gusts, Shimon said.

The latest storms come less than a week after another batch of severe weather, including at least a dozen confirmed tornadoes, ravaged parts of southern Missouri. Those storms killed four people and damaged or destroyed several hundred homes.

[lross47-2009]

Thanks for the heads up. I live in So. Cal and usually keep a small garden in my back yard. Not nearly enough to sustain us through hard times, but enough to help. Guess I will be planting more veggies now and get to canning. (I was raised by a grandmother from Indiana...lol she taught me how to do this stuff - glad now she did) So again, thanks. Guess I will be pulling up a few more flowerbeds and replanting with whatever eatables I can get in the ground at this late date. But our weather permits year round planting. I will put it to good use. It's water we are concerned with. Your swimming we are all dried up. Wanna swap some?

[tx_doughboy]

"Its springtime and time for Gods annual cleanup of sinners in the midwest.
Posted by mrs_trepidatious at 5:30 AM : May 14, 2009 "

I didn't realize that the Taliban allowed women to speak???

[leeanna59]

From Iowa:

Didn't you know there are no sinners in the Midwest? We're all fine, moral, upstanding people. Well, except for that crowd in Illinois.
Posted by creeper00

Really? I thought Iowa was one of the recent states to allow same gender marriage.

[leeanna59]

What you folks who are preaching from the bully-pulpit better worry about is food shortages. Here in southern Illinois where I live, there has not been one crop put in the field yet.

Posted by Renegade.Rivers

You are right, and thank you for the heads up. My church has been advocating food storage for hard times for years. I have let my supply dwindle; I guess I better get busy. When you stop to think of it, if there is no food, gold won't tide you over. Rather than buying gold to get you through hard times, get food storage while the getting is good.

[Renegade.Rivers]

Its springtime and time for Gods annual cleanup of sinners in the midwest.
Posted by mrs_trepidatious

What a ridiculious statement. This has nothing to do with god, and sinners, this is weather.

What you folks who are preaching from the bully-pulpit better worry about is food shortages. Here in southern Illinois where I live, there has not been one crop put in the field yet. A few days ago, I drove better than 60 miles through southern Illinois, and never seen one field that had been planted. Usually by this time most of the corn is planted, and the farmers are starting on soybeans. None of that this year, there hasn't been anything put in the fields yet.

Last night we got 3.7 inches of rain, which when added to what we got earlier in the week is over 5 inches. The weather bureau is calling for another round of storms tomorrow to match those we had yesterday and last night. If we didn't get another drop of rain, it would take 2-3 weeks for the ground to dry enough for crops to be planted. That is nearly to late for corn, which is where much of the ethenol comes from, and all kinds of food products.

This could become a critical problem, and food could be in short supply this fall. As with the farm crops, very few people have any garden out at all, which will also affect food supplies. I would advise anyone who goes to the grocery store to buy a few wxtra cans of food each time, to insure that they are not in short supply this winter.

My mother who lives with me has been living on this earth for 97 years, and she has lived here in southern Illinois those 97 years. She says she has never seen it so wet as it is this year. Throughout my near 60 years, I have seen it so dry that farmers were apprehensive about planting crops, but never, until this year have I seen it so wet that crops could not be planted, especially corn at this late date, when not one crop was yet in the field.

[czhnder]

Its springtime and time for Gods annual cleanup of sinners in the midwest.

Posted by mrs_trepidatious at 5:30 AM : May 14, 2009

That's what I've always thought about those babies who die in storms! Oops! Your ignorance is showing!!

[creeper00]

From Iowa:

Didn't you know there are no sinners in the Midwest? We're all fine, moral, upstanding people. Well, except for that crowd in Illinois.

[mrs_trepidatious]

Its springtime and time for Gods annual cleanup of sinners in the midwest.