Severe Storms leave deaths, destruction in central USA
Pastor Dale Morgan
Severe Storms leave deaths, destruction in central USA*
From staff and wire reports
Severe weather battered the nation's midsection Friday, killing at least
seven people in Arkansas, injuring dozens of others and damaging
hundreds of homes and businesses.
In the last 24 hours, tornadoes, baseball size hail and hurricane-force
winds ripped through Arkansas and seven other states, including Texas,
Missouri, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Illinois, South Dakota and Kansas.
Police said a 15-year-old girl was killed Friday when a tree fell
through a bedroom where she was sleeping at her home in Siloam Springs
in north Arkansas. Arkansas Department of Emergency Management spokesman
Tommy Jackson also confirmed two deaths in Conway County; three in Van
Buren County; and one death in Pulaski County.
The agency also reported 13 injuries.The storms damaged property and
blew out electric service to nearly 6,000 homes and businesses.
In Damascus, Ark., property damage was extensive.
Randy Payne, 38, hid in a hallway at his aunt and uncle's house.
"It sounded like all hell was breaking loose," Payne said.
Hurricane-force winds, hail and heavy rain moved through Missouri
leaving hundreds of homes and businesses damaged.
Fire officials say several people were injured in the storms late
Thursday and early Friday.
Authorities in the Kansas City area say the worst damage is in the
city's northern and eastern suburbs. The National Weather Service
reported that winds reached 80 mph.
Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser said Friday that 100 homes suffered
significant damage in the city alone.
In northeast Kansas City, trees were knocked from their roots and laying
along the roads and in ditches.
Dozens of homes had chunks of their roofs missing. Some had their fences
toppled. Police blocked off roads surrounding damaged neighborhoods Friday.
At least three tornadoes raked across central and northern Oklahoma,
including one in Osage County near Tulsa that was an estimated 100 yards
wide.
In Owasso, also near Tulsa, straight-line winds destroyed the $4.7
million TownPlace Suites Hotel, authorities said.
In other parts of the country a river that flooded parts of northern
Maine dropped much faster than expected, allowing residents who fled
their homes to return and assess the damage, officials said Friday.
The St. John River dipped below flood stage Friday, just two days after
upward of 1,000 people were evacuated as the river reached the highest
levels ever recorded. As many as 140 area homes were flooded.
The river's drop came as Gov. John Baldacci traveled to the region
Friday for his second visit to get a firsthand look and talk to local
residents.
A team from the Maine Department of Transportation and an inspector from
Canada planned to get their first look at the International Bridge
between Fort Kent and Clair, New Brunswick, Saturday morning to make
sure that the two-lane bridge wasn?t moved from its supports by the
fast-moving waters, said Mark Latti, a Maine transportation agency
spokesman.
Meanwhile, three Texans were charged Thursday with starting a fire that
has charred more than 2,000 acres near Grand Canyon National Park in
Arizona.
The two men and a woman were camping Tuesday in the Kaibab National
Forest when they left their campfire unattended after running out of
water, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in
Flagstaff.
A second straight day of fierce wind Thursday hampered firefighters
battling a blaze in central New Mexico's Manzano Mountains.
Fire officials estimated the acreage at 13,000, or about 20 square
miles, by Thursday night. Peter D'Aquanni, a U.S. Forest Service public
information officer, said crews tried to go in several times to get a
count of what had been destroyed but were pushed back each time. Wind
kept air drops of water and fire retardant grounded Thursday.
"We're pretty much going to have a carbon copy of yesterday again
today," D'Aquanni said Thursday. Conditions are expected to be the same
Friday, he said.
At least seven wildfires, two of which consumed more than 20,000 acres
each, burned across Texas on Thursday, threatening homes, a wind farm
and a $10 million vineyard, officials said.
A 21,000-acre blaze in western Texas neared a $280 million wind farm and
an 800-acre vineyard, said Jeanne Eastham, a spokeswoman for the Texas
Forest Service. The service had a mandatory evacuation for one ranch in
the fire's path.
Cities along the Mississippi River valley are expected to get bad storms
Friday, according to Tom Moore, lead meteorologist at The Weather Channel.
Moore said some areas along the Black Hills in South Dakota could
receive up to 3 feet of snow and Rapid City may get up to a foot.
"It should be an active day from the Great Lakes all the way down,"
Moore said.
The storm system should ease up by Saturday, but will continue pouring
rain from New York to the Southeast. And that, Moore said, could make
for a soggy day at the Kentucky Derby.
"It's going to rain there in the morning for sure," Moore said. "But it
should break up by midday."
Contributing: Alan Gomez in McLean, Va., and the Associated Press