Fires, storms and tornadoes wreak havoc across US midwest

MASSIVE wildfires raced across northern Texas early yesterday, burning more than half a million acres and leaving at least seven people dead.

Four of the victims were killed in a chain-reaction crash on a smoke-obscured highway, and three others died in fires north-east of Amarillo.

Meanwhile, swarms of tornadoes killed at least 10 people across the midwest, shut down the University of Kansas and caused so much damage in Springfield that the mayor compared it to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The violent weather started during the weekend with a line of storms that spawned tornadoes and downpours from the southern Plains to the Ohio Valley.

Yesterday, a second line of storms raked the region, with rain, hail and fierce wind tearing up trees and homes from Kansas through Indiana. To the northwest, the vast weather system pulled cold air in Canada, generating snowstorms that cut off power to thousands and shut down schools in South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Illinois’ capital was hit hard twice in 24 hours, first by a tornado and then strong wind early yesterday that blew debris through the city. Power lines were down across Springfield, trees uprooted and windows blown out.

“It’s just amazing how devastating it is,” Mayor Tim Davlin said yesterday. “It looks like the pictures we saw a couple months ago after Katrina.”

The tornado that struck Springfield on Sunday evening was one of about 20 that broke out along a 400-mile patch across Missouri and Illinois, National Weather Service meteorologist Ed Shimon said.

Further south, massive fires scorched more than 663,000 acres far eclipsing deadly wildfires in January that prompted Texas Governor Rick Perry to declare a state-wide drought disaster.

“This is probably one of the biggest fire days in Texas history,” said Warren Bielenberg, a spokesman for the Texas Forest Service.