5 dead after tornado, flooding from storms

UNITED STATES: The death toll rose to at least five yesterday after severe thunderstorms swept through the central US, spawning a tornado that flattened homes, galeforce winds and widespread flooding from the Upper Midwest to Appalachia.

The system that stretched from Texas to the Canadian Maritime provinces had prompted several emergency declarations even before the dangerous storms arrived.

In southwestern Michigan, the body of a 48-year-old man was found floating in floodwaters in Kalamazoo, city Public Safety Lieutenant David Thomas said. Police were withholding his name until notifying relatives.

In Kentucky, authorities said three people died. Two bodies were recovered from submerged vehicles in separate incidents on Sunday.

And Dallas Jane Combs, 79, died after a suspected tornado destroyed her Adairville home earlier Sundday, the Logan County Sheriff’s Office told media outlets. Sheriff officials said Combs was inside the home when it collapsed on her. Combs was pronounced dead at the scene.

Authorities said Combs’ husband was outside putting up plastic to keep rain out of the home when he was blown into the basement area. He sustained minor injuries.

The fifth death was in northeast Arkansas, where an 83-year-old man was killed after high winds toppled a trailer home. Clay County Sheriff Terry Miller told KAIT-TV that Albert Foster died after the home was blown into a pond.

About 80km away, the National Weather Service said the roof was blown off a hotel in Osceola, about 257km north of Memphis, Tennessee.

In Middle Tennessee, the National Weather Service on Sunday confirmed an EF-2 tornado with maximum winds of 193kmh hit Clarksville on Sunday.

Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Sandra Brandon said at least four homes were destroyed and dozens of others were damaged, while 75 cars at a tyre plant parking lot had their windows blown out or were tossed onto one other.

‘‘To look at what I’m looking at and know we didn’t lose anybody is just a miracle,’' Montgomery County Mayor Jim Durrett told The Leaf-Chronicle.- AP