32 killed in US tornado terror

SWARMS of violent thunderstorms and tornadoes crashed through the middle of the US, killing at least 32 people in Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee. Eight people were missing in this hard-hit town.

Houses across the region were blown apart by Sunday’s storms, trees were uprooted and power lines and other debris blocked roads. Travellers were evacuated from the terminals at Kansas City’s main airport and given shelter in tunnels.

In Pierce City, not a home or business was left untouched in the town of nearly 1,400, and wreckage made it impossible to walk the streets.

Two bodies had been pulled from the rubble of the town’s nearly levelled National Guard Armory.

Officials initially feared the eight missing were killed in the armoury, where several people had taken shelter.

But after sunrise yesterday authorities had found no sign of anyone else and regional emergency official Glenn Dittmar said he was “99-and-a-half percent” sure no one else would be found there.

“I’ve never been in anything like this. It was absolutely terrible,” said Pierce City clerk Julie Johnson, who rode out the storm in the armoury bathroom.

The storms were blamed for at least 14 deaths in Missouri, seven in Kansas and 11 in Tennessee. One tornado carved a 65-mile path across West Tennessee, said meteorologist Gene Rench at the National Weather Service in Memphis.

They were part of a huge weather system that rolled across the Midwest and parts of the South, and also spawned twisters in Arkansas, South Dakota and Nebraska. Damage in Arkansas included wrecked homes and businesses, power outages and overturned trucks. Hail as big as baseballs hammered parts of South Dakota.

Some 24,000 homes and businesses lost power in Louisville, utility officials said.

In Tennessee, a state of emergency was declared in Madison County, including the hard-hit city of Jackson.

Eleven bodies had been taken to Jackson-Madison County General Hospital, said spokeswoman Jan Boud. Much of Jackson had no power yesterday and the hospital was operating off a generator. “It’s like downtown Baghdad,” lawyer Joe Byrd said of the damage in Jackson.

Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius declared seven counties disaster areas.

Eighty homes were damaged or destroyed in Kansas’ Crawford County, at least 20 of them in the Franklin area. County emergency management director Edlon Bedene said: “It wiped out a third of the town, I hate to say it. The trees are like somebody came in and cut them off 10 feet above the ground. It’s a mess.”

Several homes were severely damaged in Kansas City. “My daughter’s room is gone, but she’s OK,” resident Jodee Nirschl said, tears coming to her eyes. “As long as I have my kids and my husband, I’ll be OK.”