Rescue workers among dead after tornado, waves

ICY roads, deadly tornadoes and punishing waves in severe weekend weather have been blamed for 11 deaths and damage in parts of the Midwest, South and North-east of the US.

Tens of thousands remain without electrical power as a result of the storms.

Officials in far-flung locations were assessing the damages while utility crews worked to restore power.

The storms toppled trees, ripped off roofs and in some areas reduced buildings to rubble. The National Weather Service said a tornado packing winds of at least 215km/h hit Alabama’s Pickens County on Saturday, killing three people.

“I could hear everything just coming apart,” Larry Jones, standing amid the rubble in Pickens County, said.

Alabama governor Kay Ivey praised the state’s rescue workers on Sunday, while expressing grief over the deaths.

“I have reached out to both the county leadership and the legislative delegation to offer my deepest condolences in this terrible loss of life,” Ivey said.

In north-western Louisiana, three fatalities were blamed on high winds. A man in his bed in Oil City, Louisiana, was crushed to death by a tree that fell on his home early on Saturday. A couple in nearby Bossier Parish were killed when the storms demolished their mobile home. The National Weather Service said it was a tornado with winds of over 215km/h.

In Lubbock, Texas, two rescue workers were killed when they were hit by a vehicle at the scene of a traffic accident on icy roads. In Iowa, where a semi-trailer on Interstate 80 overturned, a passenger was killed in similar road conditions.

Near Kiowa, Oklahoma, a man drowned after he was swept away by floodwaters, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said.

In Wisconsin, high winds, towering waves and flooding caused millions of dollars in damage to Port Milwaukee on Lake Michigan.

Port director Adam Schlicht called it “an unprecedented event at Port Milwaukee”.

Icy weather also complicated travel in some areas. Winter weather prompted the cancellation of more than 1 200 flights on Saturday at Chicago’s two main airports. |

A VENDOR removes snow from his stall after heavy snowfall in Quetta, capital of Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province, yesterday. Severe winter weather has struck parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan, with heavy snowfall, rains and flash floods that left more than 40 dead, officials said yesterday as authorities struggled to clear and reopen highways and evacuate people to safer places.