Storms battering the Midwest bring tornadoes, hail and strong winds
DETROIT– Severe storms continued to pound the Midwest early Wednesday, unleashing a curtain of heavy rain, gusty winds and tornadoes that forecasters warned could pour out of the region.
The tornadoes were first spotted after dark Tuesday in parts of Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, while parts of Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri were also under a tornado watch, the National Weather Service said.
As the storms raged through the early morning hours Wednesday, the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh warned that a tornado in northeastern Ohio could move into Pennsylvania. Parts of West Virginia were also under a tornado warning.
Hours earlier in southwestern Michigan, two tornadoes ripped through the city of Portage near Kalamazoo on Tuesday evening, destroying homes and commercial buildings, including a FedEx facility that was torn apart.
No serious injuries were immediately reported, but city officials said in a news release that the twisters knocked out power to more than 20,000 people. Most of them would be without power until late Wednesday, city officials said.
At one point, about 50 people were trapped in the FedEx facility due to downed power lines. But company spokesperson Shannon Davis said late Tuesday that “all team members are safe and accountable.”
Tuesday’s storms came a day after parts of the central United States were lashed by heavy rain, high winds, hail and tornadoes. Both the Plains and the Midwest have been ravaged by tornadoes this spring.
On Monday evening, a deadly tornado in Oklahoma ripped through the small town of Barnsdall with a population of 1,000. At least one person was killed and another was missing. Dozens of houses were destroyed.
Aerial photos showed houses reduced to rubble and others with their roofs torn off. The destroyer threw vehicles to the ground, downed power lines and stripped branches and bark from trees in the city. A 65-acre laundry plant in the community also suffered heavy damage.
It was the second tornado to hit Barnsdall in five weeks: an April 1 tornado with maximum winds of 90 to 100 mph (145 to 161 km per hour) damaged homes and blew down trees and utility poles.
Before Monday night’s powerful tornado touched down, the National Weather Service had warned that “a large and life-threatening tornado” was heading north of Tulsa toward Barnsdall and the nearby city of Bartlesville.
At the Hampton Inn in Bartlesville, several splintered 2x4s were driven into the south side of the building. Chunks of insulation, twisted metal and other debris littered the hotel’s lawn, and vehicles in the parking lot were badly damaged by blown-out windows.
Hotel guest Matthew Macedo said he was taken to a washroom to wait out the storm.
“When the impact happened it was incredibly sudden,” he said.
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, who reviewed tornado damage on Tuesday, said the tornado was rated by weather researchers as a violent tornado with winds up to 200 miles (322 km) per hour. Stitt said he and legislative leaders have agreed to set aside $45 million in this year’s budget to help storm-damaged communities.
“Oklahomans are resilient,” Stitt said, “and we are going to rebuild.”
Areas in Oklahoma, including Sulfur and Holdenville, are still recovering from a tornado that killed four people and left thousands without power late last month.
The powerful storms come amid a wild wave of severe weather around the world, including some of the worst flooding ever in Brazil and a brutal heatwave in Asia.
In the US it looks stormy all week. The eastern U.S. and the South are expected to bear the brunt of the bad weather for the rest of the week, including in Indianapolis, Memphis, Nashville, St. Louis and Cincinnati – cities home to more than 21 million people. It should be clear at the weekend.
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Murphy reported from Oklahoma City. Associated Press journalists from around the country contributed to this report, including Rio Yamat, Heather Hollingsworth, Colleen Slevin, Jim Salter, Kathy McCormack, Sarah Brumfield and Beatrice Dupuy.
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