5 dead in severe storms
A statue of Mary is among the items volunteers salvaged from the rubble of a destroyed home in Clarksville, Tenn., Sunday.
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 man was found floating in floodwaters Sunday in Kalamazoo, city Public Safety Lt. David Thomas said.
Thomas said the death didn’t appear suspicious and that authorities were trying to determine the man’s identity and cause of death. Kalamazoo was 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 in western Kentucky near Morganfield, the Henderson Fire Department said on its Facebook page. The body has been sent to a medical examiner for an autopsy.
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. The victim’s identify was being withheld pending notification of relatives.
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. 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. Lacy Atkins / The Tennessean via AP
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 Saturday night after the home was blown into a pond.
About 50 miles away, the National Weather Service said the roof was blown off a hotel in Osceola, about 160 miles north of Memphis, Tennessee.
In Middle Tennessee, the National Weather Service on Sunday confirmed an EF-2 tornado with maximum winds of 120 mph hit Clarksville on Saturday.
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 tire 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.
NOT REAL: The crisis actors of Florida Parkland school shooting
THE FACTS: Suspicion that students speaking to the media about the Florida school shooting that killed 17 were “crisis actors” who had not really been there sparked hundreds of false claims online. Much attention was focused on David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez, who spoke repeatedly on national television about the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The county superintendent, Robert Runcie, said Hogg and Gonzalez are “absolutely students” at the school. Several sites targeted Hogg after finding a YouTube video he posted in 2017 about a beach argument he witnessed while on vacation in California, and suggested he wasn’t from Florida and had been seen on video elsewhere rehearsing his remarks.
NOT REAL: Dunkin’ Donuts is providing a free box of Doughnuts! To Celebrate 67th Anniversary!
THE FACTS: Clickable coupon aside, no free pastries are awaiting Dunkin’ Donuts customers this week. It’s one of many fake giveaways that go viral with offers of free food from prominent national brands like Pizza Hut and Costco. Clicking on the coupon sends users to a three-question survey about the chain and then asks for more personal information. Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc. spokeswoman Michelle King says the online offer is not coming from the chain. And it’s not their 67th anniversary; this year will be the chain’s 68th year in business.