Tornadoes, floods carve deadly swath
CANTON, Texas — At least 14 people have been killed by tornadoes or flooding in the South and Midwest by a storm that also dumped a rare lateseason blizzard in western Kansas on Sunday.
Tornadoes hit several small towns in eastern Texas, killing four people. Five people were killed by flooding and winds in Arkansas, including a fire chief who was struck by a vehicle while working during the storm. Two deaths were reported in Missouri, including a woman who drowned after rushing water swept away a car. One of two deaths in Mississippi included a 7-year-old who died by electric shock. And a 2-year-old girl died in Tennessee after being struck by a soccer goalpost thrown by heavy winds.
Flooding closed part of Interstate 44 near Hazelgreen, Mo., and officials expected it would be at least a day before the highway reopened. Interstate 70 in western Kansas was closed because crews were waiting for snow falling at up to 4 inches an hour being blown by 35 mph winds to subside.
Rescuers in northwest Arkansas continued Sunday to look for an 18-month-old girl and a 4-year-old boy who were in a vehicle swept off a bridge by floodwaters in Hindsville, the Madison County Sheriff ’s Office said.
In Texas, search teams were going door to door Sunday after the tornadoes the day before flattened homes, uprooted trees and flipped several pickup trucks at a Dodge dealership in Canton.
“It is heartbreaking and upsetting to say the least,” Canton Mayor Lou Ann Everett saidat a news conference Sunday morning.
The storms cut a path of destruction 35 miles long and 15 miles wide in Van Zandt County, Everett said. The largely rural area is about 50 miles east of Dallas.
The National Weather Service found evidence of four tornadoes with one twister possibly on the ground for 50 miles.
The first reports of tornadoes came about 4:45 p.m. Saturday, but emergency crews were hampered by continuing severe weather, said Judge Don Kirkpatrick, the chief executive for Van Zandt County.
“We’d be out there working and get a report of another tornado on the ground,” he said.
The storms rolled through Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Sunday with strong winds causing isolated pockets of damage.
A second death from weekend flooding was announced Sunday by Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, but he did not release any details about the victim or the circumstances of the death.