Storms leave death and ruin
Eight killed as tornado also tears through US states
WASHINGTON: Strong storms, including at least one tornado, swept through parts of the Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic region, damaging homes and businesses and causing injuries after storms in the South killed at least eight people.
Storms that hit Ohio on Sunday and moved into New Jersey overnight into Monday brought heavy rains, lightning, strong winds and, in Ohio, at least one tornado. The storms followed worse conditions that had swept across the South, unleashing more than a dozen confirmed tornadoes and flooding, killing at least eight people, injuring dozens and flattening much of a Texas town.
In Virginia, about an hour south of Washington, authorities said a tree fell on a house and killed a woman early on Monday morning.
The Stafford County Sheriff’s Office said the unidentified woman, 78, had been asleep when the tree fell at 1.43am. An 82-year-old man who was in the home was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life threatening.
In Shelby, Ohio, the National Weather Service said an EF2 tornado with winds of up to 200kph touched down on Sunday. No deaths were reported, but Richland County emergency officials said several homes and businesses were damaged and that at least six people were injured in the city roughly 145km southwest of Cleveland.
The weather service says an EF0 tornado with maximum winds of about 115kph also swept through part of Clark County in western Ohio on Sunday, about 65km west of Columbus, and damaged some mobile homes. There were no immediate reports of injuries there.