5 dead after tornado, flooding from storms lash central U.S.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — 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-yearold man was found floating in floodwaters Sunday in Kalamazoo, authorities said.

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 in western Kentucky near Morganfield.

And a male’s body was pulled from a vehicle in a creek near the south-central Kentucky community of Franklin on Saturday.

About 20 miles away, a 79-year-old woman died after a suspected tornado destroyed her Adairville home and it collapsed on her earlier Saturday.

The fifth death was in northeast Arkansas, where an 83-year-old man was killed after high winds toppled his trailer home Saturday night.

In Middle Tennessee, the National Weather Service on Sunday confirmed an EF-2 tornado with maximum winds of 120 mph hit Clarksville on Saturday, destroying at least four homes.

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