Cluster of tornadoes leaves trail of death and destruction across midwest
A cluster of more than 10 tornadoes that swept through five states has killed at least three people and injured more than 100, with others still missing early on Friday and first responders searching through rubble, after severe storms left neighborhoods splintered and brought down power lines.
Parts of eastern Indiana and western Ohio were hit especially hard in the deadly weather overnight, and the extent of the destruction and the toll on residents was still not clear as first light illuminated flattened towns on Friday.
“There have been many, many significant injuries but I don’t know the number, I don’t know where they are. I don’t know what those injuries are,” the Indiana state police superintendent, Doug Carter, told reporters at a news conference late on Thursday.
He described the storm as a “terrible, terrible event”.
NBC News earlier reported, citing the state police, that three deaths had occurred in a trailer home park in Winchester, which is in Randolph county, Indiana, but the deaths remained unconfirmed on Friday afternoon.
“There’s a lot that we don’t know yet,” Carter said, confirming that the police had initially reported the three deaths.
He said that some buildings and homes had been completely destroyed in Winchester and that work will begin in the morning to find if people were still trapped in those buildings.
At least three people have been killed in Logan county, Ohio, according to law enforcement.
Chief deputy Joe Kopus of the Logan county sheriff’s office in Bellefontaine, Ohio, said there would probably be more fatalities discovered, noting there was heavy damage in Lakeview, Midway, Orchard Island and Russells Point.
County sheriff Randall Dodds told CNN: “Keep us in your prayers. Everybody knows everybody, we care about each other here.”
He described to the cable network the tornado hitting “like a bomb going off”, causing “unbelievable damage”.
Dodds said the area of damage looked like a war zone, in remarks to the Columbus Dispatch.
The National Weather Service said on Friday afternoon that tornadoes had touched down.
The storms were part of a night of violent weather that stretched from north-east Texas to Ohio. Several small towns near Winchester also suffered heavy damage from suspected tornadoes.
ABC’s Good Morning America reported that there were at least 350 storm reports overnight, including 120 reports of damaging winds. The severe weather was continuing into early Friday as the storm system moved south-east.