3 dead as Severe Weather seeps across US Midwest
Pastor Dale Morgan
3 dead as Severe Weather seeps across US Midwest*
* Story Highlights
* NEW: Storms wreak havoc as they travel east through Midwest to
Virginia
* NEW: Two die trying to drive through floodwaters; woman killed
when tree hits car
* Woman impaled by tree limb as tornado hits small Indiana community
* Tornado destroys 40 buildings at Indiana National Guard's Camp
Atterbury
ANNANDALE, Virginia (AP) -- A band of storms that moved east from
Indiana on Wednesday splintered homes, swept vehicles from flooded roads
and dumped a historic covered bridge into a river. Three people were killed.
Storms swept through the nation's capital Wednesday after wreaking havoc
in the Midwest.
A woman died Wednesday afternoon when a tree fell on a vehicle in
Annandale, a Washington suburb, a fire department spokesman said.
Earlier Wednesday, authorities in West Virginia recovered the body of a
20-year-old man swept away while trying to drive his truck through high
water.
Gov. Joe Manchin declared a state of emergency in at least 15 West
Virginia counties after flooding and mudslides closed numerous roads.
Some places reported more than 3 inches of rain.
In storm-weary central Indiana, state police said a woman died Wednesday
morning when she drove her car into rushing flood waters.
A wave of thunderstorms that began Tuesday caused widespread flash
flooding, with 5 inches of rain reported overnight in some areas.
A meteorologist in Virginia said that storms in the mid-Atlantic were
part of a weather system that moved through the Midwest and Ohio Valley
earlier Wednesday.
Residents were cleaning up in tiny Moscow, Indiana, a community of about
80 residents 35 miles southeast of Indianapolis, battered Tuesday by a
tornado that destroyed one house, damaged four or five others and dumped
a historic covered bridge into a river.
State officials said that a house was destroyed in Greene County, and
aerial coverage showed that some rural farmhouses had been leveled.
One woman was in critical condition after being impaled in the upper
chest by a 3-inch-diameter tree limb, said Charles Smith, chief of the
Posey Township Volunteer Fire Department, who helped rescue her from
storm debris.
"Her house was gone, along the side of the riverbank. There's nothing
left of it," he said. "She didn't talk, but she was moaning."
Another tornado damaged 40 buildings at the Indiana National Guard's
Camp Atterbury, about 25 miles south of Indianapolis. Two soldiers
suffered minor injuries as they sought shelter.
In the mid-Atlantic, hundreds of thousands of people lost power and
train service was disrupted just ahead of rush hour Wednesday.
In Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, Mayor Gerald Donovan said one person was
injured after an apparent tornado touched down and ripped the roofs and
siding off several homes.
"It scared a lot of people in our town," Donovan told WRC-TV. "We're all
very grateful more damage wasn't done."
In Dunn Loring, Virginia, the roof was blown off a house and a tree fell
on it, Fairfax County fire department spokesman Lt. Raul Castillo said.
High winds were also blamed for the collapse of a crane at a steel mill
site near Baltimore. No one was injured.
Funnel clouds were reported in other parts of the region. See a
breakdown of tornado numbers »
The National Weather Service in Sterling, Virginia, had not confirmed
whether any tornadoes touched down, said meteorologist Brandon Peloquin.
In Ohio, weather service meteorologist Andy Hatzos said that countless
funnel clouds had been reported by early Wednesday but that no tornadoes
had been confirmed.
advertisement
Rain fell at a rate of 2 inches an hour in parts of Ohio.
Farther west, in Kansas City, Kansas, a fuel distribution center partly
reopened Wednesday, a day after a spectacular fire that started when a
lightning strike ignited a storage tank. No one was hurt.