Suspected tornadoes kill at least 3 in Midwest
Authorities in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky on Friday began to survey the immense damage inflicted by a series of suspected tornadoes that ripped across the Midwest overnight, leveling homes, killing at least three people and injuring dozens, officials confirmed, noting that they expect the death toll to rise.
Officials in central Ohio’s Logan County said they are dealing with a “mass casualty incident” with at least three deaths from a suspected tornado that struck a trailer park near Indian Lake, located about 70 miles northwest of Columbus.
“It’s one hell of a mess up there,” Logan County Sheriff Randy Dodds told the Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA TODAY Network. “It looks like a war zone.”
Dodds said there were areas where debris and downed power lines made it unsafe for first responders. He said officials anticipate that there may be more people found dead during searches that will continue Friday morning. More than 20,000 people were without electricity, according to a database maintained by USA TODAY.
Tornado touchdowns were also reported near Hancock County in northwest Ohio and along the Huron-Richland counties line. A half-mile-wide tornado that damaged homes and structures was reported by Huron County’s emergency management agency, according to the National Weather Service in Cleveland.
Indiana State Police Superintendent Douglas Carter said at a news conference Thursday night that there “have been many significant injuries” in Winchester, a town 70 miles northeast of Indianapolis, but he was not aware of any deaths. “I don’t know the number, I don’t know where they are, I don’t know what those injuries are – none of us do.”
Carter also said that some buildings and homes were “completely destroyed” and families had “lost everything.” The governor has sent Indiana
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Madisyn and Tate.”
Defense attorney Mariell Lehman said it was easy to look at things in hindsight and second-guess Crumbley’s decisions.
Lehman acknowledged the horrors of the shooting. But, she said, “This case is about what happened outside Oxford High School ... about what James Crumbley knew on or before Nov. 30, 2021.”
No one who met with the shooter in the hours before the massacre could have predicted what was going to happen, she said. T
The school officials didn’t think he was a danger, Lehman stressed, and neither did the student’s father.
Contributing: Gina Kaufman, Detroit Free Press; The Associated Press