Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Broken but unyielding
A parishioner views the ruins of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Ridgway, Ill., on Thursday, a day after the community landmark built in the late 1800s was hit by strong storms that swept through the town of fewer than 1,000 people. Across the Midwest and the South, towns began cleaning up the damage from deadly tornadoes.
HARRISBURG, Ill. — Crews cleared splintered plywood and mangled appliances from small-town neighborhoods Thursday, a day after tornadoes killed 13 people in the Midwest and South. But the forecast held a menacing possibility: more twisters that could be even stronger.
Damaged communities tried to take advantage of the brief break in the weather, mindful of one meteorologist’s warning that by today, both regions would again be “right in the bull’s-eye.”
Skies were sunny in the southern Illinois community of Harrisburg, where Darrell Osman was back in the rubble of his dead mother’s home, trying to salvage whatever he could. When he arrived, a neighbor handed him his mother’s wallet, which the twister had dropped in a truck near her home.
He couldn’t help but think of the pain that would be inflicted if another twister hit Harrisburg, where six people were killed.
“On a personal level, I think I’ve been hit as hard as I can be hit, but it would be disheartening for this community,” Osman said.
Kera Wise searched the ruins of her aunt and uncle’s home after both were hospitalized in neighboring Indiana with injuries they suffered in the storm.
Wise figured she had little time to waste in rounding up her aunt’s prized trove of Elvis memorabilia and Beanie Babies. Another line of storms could ruin anything left exposed to the elements.
“You just keep thinking, ‘God, please don’t let there be another tornado.’”
President Barack Obama called the governors of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky and Tennessee and said he was ready to assist with their needs.
National Weather Service meteorologist Beverly Poole said severe storms were expected to roll through the region again after midnight Thursday and linger into early today, possibly delivering hail and rain.
Then yet another system was expected to arrive this afternoon.
Both rounds of violent weather carry the potential of more tornadoes, Poole said.
The weather service planned to take a severe-weather specialist to the region’s command center to provide up-to-the-minute information before and during the storms.
Osman awoke before Wednesday’s storm because he was alerted by his special weather radio. He said earlywarning equipment was essential.
“The peace of mind you get from it sitting on your dresser is well worth the cost,” he said.
Authorities warned that the next line of storms was forecast to take a similar path and potentially grow stronger than Wednesday’s system.
Ryan Jewell, a meteorologist with the Storm Prediction Center, said the Midwest and South would be directly in the danger zone.
In Missouri, one person was killed in the town of Buffalo, while two more fatalities were reported in Cassville and near Leora. All three died in mobile homes.
A Harveyville, Kan., man suffered fatal injuries after his home collapsed on him.
Another twister hopscotched down the main thoroughfare of the country-music mecca of Branson, damaging some of the city’s famous theaters just days before the start of the town’s crucial tourist season. Local leaders insisted Branson was open for business, but they expected the full cleanup to take weeks.
In Harrisburg, Levi Fogle and Sarah Pearce, parents of three young daughters, were grateful that the family survived without a scratch even though two oak trees toppled onto their home.
“God held my house up, there’s no doubt about that,” Pearce said Thursday as Fogle strummed a guitar, shaking it at times to jingle the glass fragments that got inside after the instrument was left in the backseat of a car.
The Harrisburg tornado was an EF4, the second-highest rating given to twisters based on damage. Scientists said it was 200 yards wide with winds up to 170 mph.
Adding to the danger was the storm’s timing: It hit when many people were fast slept. Information for this article was contributed by Kristin M. Hall of The Associated Press.