The worst storm of all: Tri-State Tornado holds records 90 years later

Wednesday, March 18, 1925, was a comparatively slow news day in Cape Girardeau.

Among the headlines on the front page of the Southeast Missourian's evening edition: "College not likely to get new building." "Girl, 18, makes second trip to the altar." "Left-hand turn into driveways now prohibited."

And this: "Small town obliterated by cyclone."

Annapolis, Missouri, about 100 miles west of Cape Girardeau, was nearly wiped out by a tornado that passed through the area about 2 p.m. that day, the story stated.

The paper also said a little damage had been reported at Appleton and Perryville, Missouri, but a line of the Cape Girardeau Telephone Co. was down between towns, making communication impossible. But the storm had been "barely noticeable" in Cape Girardeau, "there being only a brisk wind."

No doubt the town went to bed gossiping about the 18-year-old divorcee. Little did they know of the extensive damage and losses their neighbors had suffered.

March 19, 1925

Thursday's headline across the top of the front page revealed a reality few had considered: "STORM TOLL IS NEAR 1,000."

The tornado -- known today as the Tri-State Tornado -- had, indeed, touched down at Annapolis, the first of many landing spots. The tornado went on for more than 200 miles, touching down at Biehle, Missouri; Gorham, Murphysboro, De Soto and West Frankfort in Illinois; and Griffin, Owensville and Princeton in Indiana, setting records along the way that still stand 90 years later.

The National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office website, which categorizes the Tri-State Tornado as an EF5, said it had an average path width of three-fourths of a mile, traveled 219 miles and caused 3 1/2 hours of continuous devastation.

The twister caused 695 deaths, a record for a single tornado.

A record 234 deaths were reported in Murphysboro, the most for a single community from such a disaster. And 33 people died at the De Soto school -- only bombings and gas explosions have caused more deaths at high schools, according to the website.

The site said modern research suggests such a long-lasting tornado is the result of an evolving supercell, in which one storm cell leads to the development of another.

Because the Tri-State Tornado's path was continuous, however, it's believed it could have been one rare, massive storm.

Five people in Cape Girardeau and Perry counties were known to be dead and 14 injured.

But across the river, the early death-toll numbers being reported were much higher: 35 killed at Parrish, 200 at West Frankfort, 500 at Murphysboro.

Dr. G.S. Cannon of Fornfelt, who had been helping treat the injured, told the Missourian: "Several carloads of injured were placed on board trains there at midnight to be taken to a Cairo hospital, and rescue workers were still searching the ruins for more injured and dead."

March 20, 1925

Somber news of the storm's toll on the area continued to roll in Friday. It was time to bury the dead.

A revised list of those killed was printed, with one more than previously had been thought after a report came in by phone after communication was re-established.

The paper said the "latest figures indicate the death list will be more than 600 in final and official compilations."

Hundreds of mourners gathered for triple services at Whitewater Presbyterian Church near Lixville in Bollinger County, Missouri, and a double service was held in the wrecked Catholic church at Biehle.

The tales of devastation seemed endless. One 35-year-old farmer, Joe Blechle, was laid to rest even as his wife lay injured at a neighbor's house in Biehle.

The prognosis was not good for 9-year-old Hazel Statler, who was fighting death at a Cape Girardeau hospital after she sustained a depressed skull fracture when the storm stuck her school at Lixville.

Ida Steuve, who with her sister, Concordia, was injured when wind damaged the Rich parochial school in Frohna, was expected to be taken to a Cape Girardeau hospital for surgery -- if she could withstand the trip.

In Indiana, 92 were reported dead, the United Press reported.

Murphysboro

The tornado had set a record speed of 73 mph between Gorham and Murphysboro, where the death toll continued to rise. One-hundred-fifty bodies were recovered the morning of March 20; 250 people were reported injured.

The Murphysboro power plant was damaged, leaving the city without water or light. One hundred city blocks were destroyed, and 70 more, including residential areas, were swept by flames.

Five students died when the storm ripped through the high school. Four other public schools were damaged, as well, killing 12 students.

Cape Girardeau visitors to Murphysboro urged others to stay away: "The city is under martial law, with state militiamen guarding the ruins. Everywhere there were tragic signs of the disaster."

The city of Murphysboro said it welcomed aid, but urged visitors to stay away. "Raise money; send supplies, but keep the people away," one story read.

So many rescue workers flocked to Illinois towns, a general order was issued to stop the flow of people into the cities.

Supplies had been rushed to the area, but apparently some of the curious visitors had been taking advantage, and townspeople were worried food would run out.

Recovery

Over the week following the Tri-State Tornado, recovery efforts began to take shape.

The Red Cross organized to help in Biehle and Sedgewickvile.

Two representatives worked out a program to help nearly 100 left homeless in the communities, the Southeast Missourian reported March 25, 1925.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency would not be created for another 54 years, but calls were made for government intervention.

"An application will likely be made to Gov. Sam A. Baker for funds from the state appropriation, now pending in the legislature" for relief work, one story read, because local monies weren't going to be enough.

Locally, $1,400 was raised and used to help tornado victims. That equates to just over $18,600 today.

In Illinois, Gov. Lennington Small ordered immediate construction of Highway 13 north from Murphysboro to St. Louis, the newspaper reported.

Isaac Levy, chairman of the general rehabilitation committee in Murphysboro, had asked Small to order the work completed by state labor so Murphysboro citizens could get employment.

Three thousand men from the area were expected to be employed on the project within a few weeks, beginning to rebuild for their communities and their families.

Wednesday 18 March 2015

http://www.semissourian.com/story/2176506.html

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Tornado sweeps across southern US leaving at least 12 dead

At least 12 people have been killed after a powerful storm system wreaked havoc through the southern and central US on Sunday night.

A spokesman for the Arkansas governor, Mike Beebe, said 11 people were were killed in his state when a tornado carved through several suburbs north of Little Rock.

Local television station THV 11 said the local sheriff in Faulkner county had confirmed that six people died in the town of Vilonia.

"It's just devastating," Sheriff Andy Shock told THV 11. Shock said the town was facing a "mass casualty situation" and that nearby interstate 40 had been closed in both directions after cars and trucks were overturned.

Emergency workers and volunteers went door-to-door to look for victims. "It turned pitch black," said Mark Ausbrooks, who was at his parents' home when the storm arrived. "I ran and got pillows to put over our heads and ... all hell broke loose."

"My parents' home, it's gone completely," he said.

The large tornado stayed on the ground as it moved north-eastward for at least 30 miles (48km). Television footage showed badly damaged buildings and vehicles.

The neighbouring town of Mayflower was also badly hit. About 45 homes were destroyed and a lumberyard was damaged, said Will Elder, an alderman in the town of 2,300 people. He said at least one person was injured.

The tornado passed through the east side of town, tearing up trees and bringing down powerlines, making it difficult for the emergency services to find stricken areas in the the darkness.

"It's extremely hazardous here right now," said Elder. "The power lines are down, roads are blocked and they will have to proceed with caution."

In the western part of the state, Pulaski county sheriff's lieutenant Carl Minden said three people were killed when a tornado hit the area. Minden said several others were injured at the scene.

"I'm standing on the foundation of the house now. It's totally gone," Minden told the Associated Press.

The storm system passed through Arkansas at about 7.30pm as around a dozen twisters were reported across the region.

At least one person was killed in a tornado in the small Oklahoma town of Quapaw.

A police dispatcher in Ottawa County, Oklahoma, said a search and rescue effort was under way in Quapaw, but could not confirm reports of fatalities.

Tornadoes were also reported in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri on Sunday afternoon and evening, causing some damage but no known injuries, according to local officials and the weather service.

Monday 28 April 2014

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/28/tornado-kills-two-in-oklahoma-as-sheriff-reports-mass-casualties

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Death toll rises in Oklahoma storms

The death toll from deadly tornadoes and severe flooding that struck Oklahoma on Friday and Saturday has risen to 18, including 12 adults and six children, with the bodies of seven people still unidentified, according to the state's chief medical examiner.

Officials on Monday added five victims – three adults and two unidentified children – to the tally of confirmed deaths, said Amy Elliott, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office.

At least five tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma on Friday, catching motorists stuck in traffic on roadways around Oklahoma City and its suburbs.

The storms also caused flash flooding throughout the Oklahoma City area. The Oklahoma County sheriff's department said it conducted several water rescues on Friday and Saturday, helping dozens of people stranded by the flooding.

A 64-year-old man drowned on Saturday morning when he drove off a washed-out bridge in eastern Oklahoma County. His body was recovered a quarter of a mile from where his vehicle was found, the sheriff's department said.

Of the 18 confirmed fatalities, nine were in Oklahoma City while six were in its western suburbs, four in El Reno and two in Union City. Luther, Wewoka and Clearview, east of Oklahoma City, each recorded one fatality.

Three storm chasers who died in El Reno were among those identified by the medical examiner.

The National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma, said that to its knowledge they were the first documented "scientific storm intercept fatalities" in a tornado.

Tuesday 4 June 2013

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/04/us-oklahoma-tornado-toll

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Death toll in Oklahoma rises to 16; hunt for 6 missing continues

Oklahoma had barely started clearing the rubble from a monstrous tornado two weeks ago when another rash of twisters plowed through this ill-fated swath of Tornado Alley.

At least 16 people are dead across the state after a vicious storm tore through the area Friday evening, Oklahoma City Fire Chief Keith Bryant said Monday morning.

That number may continue to rise.

Authorities will resume their search Monday for six people still missing, including four who sought shelter in storm drains, Bryant said.

The storms left not only a trail of death and destruction, it also sent floodwaters surging. And the damage wasn't confined to Oklahoma.

In Missouri, a twister left more than 10 miles of significant damage "that caused dozens and dozens of houses to be literally blown up," Gov. Jay Nixon told CNN affiliate KSDK.

No one was killed in that tornado, but three people drowned in Missouri, Nixon said.

And in Arkansas, flooding killed at least four people: a sheriff's deputy, a wildlife officer and two women they were trying to save from a deluged home, officials said. The house collapsed in the middle of the rescue attempt, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission spokesman Keith Stephens said.

The flash flooding that accompanied Friday night's storm swept some bodies up to five miles downstream, Oklahoma City Deputy Fire Chief Marc Woodard said.

Two parents and a young child who sought refuge in a storm drain were among those killed.

Samuel Cifuentes, his wife Florinda Santos and their 5-year-old son, Alex Cifuentes, died in the Oklahoma storm, said Byron Cifuentes, Samuel's brother.

Officials had been searching for the three family members in a storm drain after the family had sought shelter from the storm on Friday. Oklahoma City officials were not able to confirm the identities or where the three bodies were recovered.

A trio of storm chasers who devoted their lives to hunting powerful storms died in the middle of a pursuit.

Tim Samaras, his son Paul Samaras and Carl Young were killed Friday while chasing a tornado in El Reno, Oklahoma, relatives told CNN on Sunday. Their work tracking tornadoes was featured on the former Discovery Channel show "Storm Chasers."

At the intersection where authorities believe the men were killed, crews hauled away a mangled white truck that had been crushed like a tin can. The metal frame of their storm-chasing vehicle was twisted almost beyond recognition.

"They all unfortunately passed away but doing what they loved," Jim Samaras wrote in a statement posted on his brother's Facebook page.

Friday's tornado took a sudden turn that surprised many observers, CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said.

"It was a wobbler. And it was big. ... I think the left-hand turn made a big difference on how this thing was chased as well and why people were killed and why people were injured in their vehicles," he said. "A vehicle is not a place to be in any tornado, especially a big one like that, and those men doing their job, those field scientists out there doing their jobs, were killed in the process."

Tim Samaras founded TWISTEX, the Tactical Weather Instrumented Sampling in Tornadoes Experiment, to help learn more about tornadoes and increase lead time for warnings, according to the TWISTEX website.

Samaras had received 18 grants from the National Geographic Society for his research, said Terry Garcia, the organization's executive vice president of missions.

Doug Kiesling, a fellow storm chaser, said the three men were bona fide researchers.

"A lot of times the storm spotters out there serve a very valuable purpose. They give ground truth to what meteorologists from the National Weather Service are doing," he said. "But seeing it in person, seeing it for real, and giving that real time information, I think really supplements the warning. It helps people take shelter ahead of time."

Monday 3 June 2013

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/03/us/midwest-weather/

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Nine killed during tornado outbreak in central Oklahoma

The Medical Examiner's Office confirmed Saturday morning that nine people, including two children, were killed during the tornado outbreak in the Oklahoma City metro area Friday evening.

According to the Medical Examiner's Office, four victims have been identified, and five others have not been identified.

In addition to the fatality numbers released by the medical examiner's office, two other victims were identified by the Oklahoma and Okfuskee county sheriffs' offices in towns east of the metro.

The Oklahoma County Sheriff's office identified a man who died when his vehicle ran into high water in Harrah, Okla. and the Okfuskee County Sheriff's office identified the body of a woman who also drowned after driving into high water.

Authorities have not released the victims' identities pending notification of family members.

The bodies of a mother and her baby were found at I-40 and Cimarron Rd. in Canadian County. Two other victims were found in a car near S.W. 15th St. and Choctaw Rd. in Union City.

One other person near N.W. 10th St. and Radio Rd. in El Reno.

Hospital officials said at least 75 people were hurt.

If you are missing a loved one from Friday night's tornado, you are encouraged to call the Medical Examiner's office at (405)-239-7141. Officials say they need help identifying the five unidentified victims.

Sunday 2 June 2013

http://www.newson6.com/story/22475903/9-killed-including-2-kids-during-tornado-outbreak-in-okc-metro

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Oklahoma officials identify all tornado victims

The death toll from this week’s monster tornado in Oklahoma stands at 24, with all victims positively identified.

The Oklahoma medical examiner’s office says 10 of those who died were children, including two infants. The eight other children range in age from 4 years old to 9 years old.

While mourning their dead, many residents remain stunned that the twister didn’t claim more lives during its 17 miles and 40 minutes on the ground.

Even as rain and storms hit the state again on Thursday morning, the massive cleanup continued.

All that is left of Shayne Patteson’s three-bedroom home is the tiny area where his wife hunkered down under a mattress to protect their three children when a tornado packing winds of at least 200 mph slammed through his neighborhood.

Patteson vowed to rebuild, likely in the same place, but said next time he will have an underground storm shelter.

“That is the first thing that will be going into the design of the house, is the storm shelter and the garage,” he said as he looked around piles of bricks and plywood where their home once stood.

Patteson’s home was among as many as 13,000 homes damaged or destroyed Monday when the twister plowed through the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore. About 33,000 people were affected, officials said, though the number left homeless was still unknown because most of the displaced were believed to be staying with friends or relatives; only two dozen or so have stayed overnight at Red Cross shelters.

At the same time, more details emerged on the human toll, including heartbreaking stories about the final moments of some of the children who were among the people killed. One elementary school was reduced to rubble when the tornado hit. Another was heavily damaged.

While anguish over the deaths was palpable as residents began to pick up their shattered neighborhoods, many remained stunned that the twister didn’t take a higher human toll during its 40 minutes on the ground.

“The tornado that we’re talking about is the 1 or 2 percent tornado,” Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management Director Albert Ashwood said of the twister, which measured a top-of-the-scale EF5 with winds of at least 200 mph. “This is the anomaly that flattens everything to the ground.”

The medical examiner reported that six of the children who died at the Plaza Towers Elementary School suffocated after being buried under a mass of bricks, steel and other materials as the building collapsed. A seventh child who perished there, 8-year-old Kyle Davis, was killed instantly by an object—perhaps a large piece of stone or a beam—that fell on the back of his neck.

With all of the missing now accounted for, response teams transitioned into cleanup and recovery, and authorities formally allowed residents back into the damage zone Wednesday to start the monumental task of rebuilding their lives.

Residents clearing massive piles of debris were trying to get hold of essentials such as mobile phones and prescription drugs lost in the destruction. Cellular service providers set up mobile retail outlets and charging stations. At least one was offering free phone calls and loaner phones.

Elsewhere in town, several hundred volunteers took it upon themselves to clean the city cemetery, which was covered in debris, so it would be ready for Memorial Day. Some veterans are buried there and it’s where the town’s residents gather on the holiday, placing flowers and flags among the gravestones.

Friday 24 May 2013

http://www.khou.com/news/national/Okla-medical-examiner-identifies-tornado-victims-208604161.html

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No more bodies or survivors likely in the rubble, Oklahoma official says

Officials in Oklahoma City said on Tuesday that 24 bodies were recovered after a devastating tornado tore through Moore, Okla., a sharp decline from the 51 deaths they previously reported.

"We have got good news. The number right now is 24," said Amy Elliott, chief administrative officer at the Oklahoma City Medical Examiner's Office. The prior figure of 51 dead may have included some double-reported casualties, Elliott said.

"There was a lot of chaos," Elliott said.

She cautioned that additional bodies could yet be recovered from the rubble.

All but three of the bodies that have been recovered have been identified and are being returned to their families, Elliott said.

Pre-dawn emergency workers searched feverishly for survivors in the rubble of homes, primary schools and an hospital in an Oklahoma City suburb of Moore.

The 2-mile(3-km) wide tornado tore through town of Moore outside Oklahoma City, trapping victims beneath the rubble as one elementary school took a direct hit and another was destroyed.

Reporters were cleared back from Plaza Towers Elementary School, which sustained a direct hit Oklahoma Lieutenant Governor Todd Lamb told CNN. But television pictures showed firefighters from more than a dozen fire departments working under bright spotlights to find survivors.

President Barack Obama declared a major disaster area in Oklahoma, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local efforts in Moore after the deadliest U.S. tornado since one killed 161 people in Joplin, Missouri, two years ago.

The White House said Obama would make a statement on the Oklahoma tornado at 11 a.m. It said the president was brieved overnight on the tornado tragedy.

There was an outpouring of grief on Plaza Towers' Facebook page, with messages from around the country including one pleading simply: "Please find those little children."

A separate Facebook page set up to reunite people in the area hit by a tornado on Sunday with their belongings and pets also showed entries for Moore residents overnight.

Another elementary school, homes and a hospital were among the buildings leveled in Moore, leaving residents of the town of about 50,000 people stunned at the devastation and loss of life. Many residents were left without power and water.

The National Weather Service assigned the twister a preliminary ranking of EF4 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, meaning the second most powerful category of tornado with winds up to 200 mph.

Witnesses said Monday's tornado appeared more fierce than the giant twister that was among the dozens that tore up the area on May 3, 1999, killing more than 40 people and destroying thousands of homes. That tornado ranked as an EF5, meaning it had winds over 200 mph.

The 1999 event in Oklahoma ranks as the third-costliest tornado in U.S. history, having caused more than $1 billion in damage at the time, or more than $1.3 billion in today's dollars. Only the devastating Joplin and Tuscaloosa tornadoes in 2011 were more costly.

"I am close to the families of all who died in the Oklahoma tornado, especially those who lost young children. Join me in praying for them," Pope Francis said in a Twitter message.

Jeff Alger, 34, who works in the Kansas oil fields on a fracking crew, said his wife Sophia took their children out of school when she heard a tornado was coming and then fled Moore and watched it flatten the town from a few miles away.

"They didn't even have time to grab their shoes," said Alger, who has five children aged four to 11. The storm tore part of the roof off of his home. He was with his wife at Norman Regional Hospital to have glass and other debris removed from his wife's bare feet.

Moore was devastated with debris everywhere, street signs gone, lights out, houses destroyed and vehicles tossed about as if they were toys.

The dangerous storm system threatened several southern Plains states with more twisters. The area around Moore faces the risk of severe thunderstorms on Tuesday, which could hamper rescue efforts.

Speaking outside Norman Regional HospitalNinia Lay, 48, said she huddled in a closet through two storm alerts and the tornado hit on the third.

"I was hiding in the closet and I heard something like a train coming," she said under skies still flashing with lightning. The house was flattened and Lay was buried in the rubble for two hours until her husband Kevin, 50, and rescuers dug her out.

"I thank God for my cell phone, I called me husband for help."

Her daughter Catherine, seven, a first-grader at Plaza Towers Elementary School, took shelter with classmates and teachers in a bathroom when the tornado hit and destroyed the school. She escaped with scrapes and cuts.

The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center provided the town with a warning 16 minutes before the tornado touched down at 3:01 p.m. (2001 GMT), which is greater than the average eight to 10 minutes of warning, said Keli Pirtle, a spokeswoman for the center in Norman, Oklahoma.

The notice was upgraded to emergency warning with "heightened language" at 2:56 p.m., or five minutes before the tornado touched down, Pirtle said.

Television media measured the tornado at more than 2 miles wide, with images showing entire neighborhoods flattened.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed a temporary flight restriction that allowed only relief aircraft in the area, saying it was at the request of police who needed quiet to search for buried survivors.

Oklahoma activated the National Guard, and the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency activated teams to support recovery operations and coordinate responses for multiple agencies.

Briarwood Elementary School, which also stood in the storm's path, was all but destroyed. On the first floor, sections of walls had been peeled away, giving clear views into the building; while in other areas, cars hurled by the storm winds were lodged in the walls.

The number of injured as reported by several hospitals rose rapidly throughout the afternoon.

"The whole city looks like a debris field," Glenn Lewis, the mayor of Moore, told NBC.

"It looks like we have lost our hospital. I drove by there a while ago and it's pretty much destroyed," Lewis said.

The massive twister struck at the height of tornado season, and more were forecast. On Sunday, tornadoes killed two people and injured 39 in Oklahoma.

Wednesday 22 May 2013

http://www.jsonline.com/news/usandworld/oklahoma-death-toll-downgraded-to-24-double-counting-cited-b9915332z1.html

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Oklahoma tornado: Children trapped in wreckage and at least 91 dead after massive storm rips through suburbs

A tornado that may be remembered as among the largest and most destructive in American history roared through a heavily populated suburb of Oklahoma City, cutting a swathe as much as two miles wide and flattening homes, shops, hospitals and, perhaps most devastatingly, schools that had no time to evacuate.

Officials say the death toll could top 91 with 20 children among those killed - many from a single elementary school that had been ripped apart by the twister, which was said to have sustained circulating winds of 200mph or more. Debris from the twister dropped like rain in Tulsa, a hundred miles away.

Officials made clear that the numbers wounded and killed was likely to rise quickly. At least 120 patients had been rushed to area hospitals of whom 10 had critical injuries, officials said. Also among those admitted for treatment were more than 50 children, they added.

President Barack Obama declared a major disaster and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts.

The tornado, which for now is measured as an EF4 but might yet be upgraded to a top-level EF5, ploughed through the community of Moore just to the south of Oklahoma City in the early hours of the afternoon. That in itself was unusual. It is more usual for twisters to strike in the evening hours, when schools, at least, have emptied out. The first warnings were issued at about 3.40 pm local time. The twister began its deadly march about eight minutes later.

News network choppers watched as the giant funnel cloud marched with unbearable slowness as commentators speculated where it was landing, block by block. Suddenly, as the nation watched, the funnel ‘roped out’, the moment when the twister dies. It was then only a few minutes before same helicopters turned into the area to see what kind of damage had been done. Very quickly, the terrifying of the carnage became clear.

As ever with tornadoes, the distance between destroyed and untouched could have been measured in feet. But structures that fell on the wrong side of the dividing line were often shredded. As emergency crews rushed in a first, desperate focus of activity was the Plaza Towers Elementary School, where 75 young students and staff were taking shelter when the twister hit. Almost nothing of the school building was left standing when it had passed.

Last night, rescue crews were swarming across the heaps of rubbish that the school had been reduced to, moving gingerly, listening for signs of life below and trying not to dislodge debris that might hurt anyone buried beneath. There was concern that as many as 25 pupils were still not accounted for as darkness fell. But in those few hours of daylight that rescuers had left several of the children were successfully pulled from the rubble alive.

“About two minutes after I got there, the school started coming apart,” said James Rushing, who had rushed to the school moments before the tornado hit. His 5-year-old foster son was enrolled in class there. Children who survived spoke of how teachers had lied down on top of them to offer some modicum of protection.

In May of 1999, the same Oklahoma City suburb was hit by a tornado so powerful it produced the fastest winds ever recorded on the surface of the Earth – just over 300 MPH. It is meanwhile exactly two years since a single tornado killed 158 people in Joplin, Missouri, just the other side of the Oklahoma state line.

Governor Mary Fallin said: “We need lots of prayers tonight”.

“The storm developed very, very rapidly, and we believe there were children in the (Plaza Towers) school. We don't know if any of them were taken out, but we do know there were some children in the school itself.”

Tuesday 21 May 2013

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/oklahoma-tornado-children-trapped-in-wreckage-and-at-least-91-dead-after-massive-storm-rips-through-suburbs-8624560.html

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Texas tornado outbreak kills at least 6

A rash of tornados whirled through small communities in North Texas overnight, leaving at least six people dead, dozens more injured and hundreds homeless. The violent spring storm threw trailers onto cars, blew windows from houses and scattered bodies far from their homes.

In Granbury, the worst-hit city, a tornado tore through two neighborhoods around 8 p.m. Wednesday. Resident Elizabeth Tovar described the fist-sized hail that heralded the tornado's arrival and prompted her and her family to hide in their bathroom.

"We were all, like, hugging in the bathtub, and that's when it started happening. I heard glass shattering, and I knew my house was going," Tovar said, shaking her head. "We looked up and … the whole ceiling was gone."

Local authorities had a news conference scheduled for 8 a.m. CT to outline the extent of the damage visible after daybreak.

Behind one house in the storm's path, a detached garage was stripped of much of its aluminum siding, the door caved in and the roof torn off. A tree behind the house was stripped of most of its branches and a vacant doublewide mobile home on an adjoining lot was torn apart.

Daniel and Amanda Layne initially thought they were safe sheltering under their carport. But then "it started getting worse and worse," and the couple took shelter in their bathroom, Daniel Layne said.

"The windows and the cars are gone. Both our cars are messed up. I had a big shop. Ain't a piece of it left now," Layne said with a shrug.

Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds described the devastating aftermath and the hunt for bodies.

"Some were found in houses. Some were found around houses," Deeds said. "There was a report that two of these people that they found were not even near their homes. So we're going to have to search the area out there."

He said officials were trying to account for 14 people.

About 50 people were taken to a Granbury hospital, where 14 were admitted for treatment of injuries and two were transferred to a hospital in Fort Worth, about 35 miles to the northeast, Deeds said. Yet more gathered at a local elementary school where paramedics provided on-site treatment. Matt Zavadsky, a spokesman for MedStar Mobile Healthcare, estimated that as many as 100 people were injured.

Another tornado that storm spotters told the National Weather Service was a mile wide tore through Cleburne, a courthouse city of about 30,000 about 25 miles southeast of Granbury.

There were no reports of deaths in that storm, Cleburne Mayor Scott Cain said, "but we do have the potential for some injuries." In one neighborhood, a trucking company trailer that had been parked on the street was picked up and dropped onto a nearby car and garage.

Cain estimated that dozens of homes were damaged.

Another tornado hit the small town of Millsap, about 40 miles west of Fort Worth. Parker County Judge Mark Kelley said roof damage was reported to several houses and a barn was destroyed, but no injuries were reported.

Hail as large as grapefruit also pelted the area around Mineral Wells on Wednesday evening. A police dispatcher reported only minor damage.

Thursday 16 May 2013

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/05/15/texas-tornado.html

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