Deadly storm in U.S. Midwest likened to ‘an explosion of glass’

ST. LOUIS — A deadly spring-like storm that one Illinois resident described as sounding like “an explosion of glass” damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes in that state and others, blew cars off a major Missouri highway and forced people in an Arkansas town to huddle for safety in a high school.

Tornadoes were blamed in three deaths amid a large swath of destruction through the central U.S. before rumbling eastward. Forecasters said up to 95 million people were potentially in the storm’s path as it moved toward the mid-Atlantic states and southern New England. Forecasters said cities including New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., could be at risk.

Officials in Arkansas, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Missouri were assessing damage after storms Tuesday night and early Wednesday.

In northern Illinois, an uprooted tree killed 76-year-old Wayne Tuntland of Ottawa. More than a dozen others were injured. In the small community of Naplate, next to Ottawa, about a quarter of the roughly 200 homes were damaged, Fire Chief John Nevins said.

Debbie Loughridge, 61, and her son were inside their Naplate home, riding out the storm in the bathtub. Firefighters rescued them after the roof was torn off.

“All I heard was the wind and the breaking glass. Like an explosion of glass,” Loughridge said.

U.S. National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center meteorologist Patrick Marsh said crews are determining how many twisters touched down across the central U.S.

Marsh said a strong storm system moved from the western mountain states and collided with warm and humid air in the Midwest, where temperatures Tuesday were well into the 20s C in many places.