Twisters & floods kill 5 in South, Midwest

THE DEATH TOLL rose to at least five on Sunday after severe thunderstorms swept through the central U.S., spawning a tornado that flattened homes, gale force 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 Sunday in Kalamazoo, which has been hard hit by flooding from last week’s heavy rains and melting snow.

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

A body was recovered from a vehicle that was in a ditch in western Kentucky near Morganfield, according to the Henderson Fire Department.

And a male’s body was pulled from a vehicle in a creek near the south central Kentucky community of Franklin on Saturday, the Simpson County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

About 20 miles away, Dallas Jane Combs, 79, died after a suspected tornado destroyed her Adairville home earlier Saturday, the Logan County sheriff’s office told media outlets. Combs was inside the home when it collapsed on her.

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 suffered minor injuries.

The fifth death was in northeast Arkansas, where an 83-yearold man was killed after high winds toppled a trailer home.

About 50 miles away, the National Weather Service said the roof was blown off a hotel in Osceola, Ark., about 160 miles north of Memphis. In middle Tennessee, the National Weather Service on Sunday confirmed an tornado with maximum winds of 120 mph hit Clarksville on Saturday.

Officials said at least four homes were destroyed and dozens of others were damaged, while 75 cars at a tire plant parking lot had their windows blown out or were 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.

The governors of Missouri, Indiana and Illinois declared disaster emergencies.

Flood watches and warnings spanned multiple states Sunday morning, from Missouri to central Pennsylvania, while a wind advisory remained in effect for nearly all of lower Michigan.

Wind gusts of up to 50 mph in places have downed power lines in several states hugging Lake Michigan.

The weather service said moderate flooding was expected along the Ohio River in Kentucky and Ohio. tossed onto one