Tornadoes fuelled by unusually warm air pummelled the South and Midwest United States on Friday, killing at least six people and injuring dozens more. Forecasters said storms could hit along a stretch from near Chicago to New Orleans later in the evening as New Year’s Eve celebrations begin.
Three people died in Arkansas when a tornado touched down just before sunrise, and three others died when a storm spawned by the same weather system ripped up the Missouri countryside. A number of storms were also reported in the St. Louis area.
The Storm Prediction Center in Oklahoma said storms later Friday could do more damage from northern Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico as communities prepare to mark the start of the new year. Forecasters posted tornado watches for the region that were set to run until 8 p.m. local time.
“It sucked me out of my house and carried me across the road and dropped me,” Chris Sisemore of Cincinnati told The Associated Press on Friday. “I was Superman for a while. … You’re just free-floating through the air. Trees are knocking you and smacking you down.”
Sisemore said he tried to crawl under his bed and cling to the carpet, fearful a nearby pecan tree would fall into his home.
In south-central Missouri, 21-year-old Megan Ross and her 64-year-old grandmother Loretta Anderson died at a farm where their family lived among three mobile homes and two frame houses, Dent County Emergency Management Coordinator Brad Nash said.
A mother and an infant in another trailer were able to run to a sturdier home, he said.
Another woman was killed when a tornado destroyed a home, according to emergency managers in Phelps County.
In Arkansas, Gerald Wilson, 88, and his wife, Mamie, 78, died in their home and Dick Murray, 78, died after being caught by the storm while milking cows, Washington County Sheriff Tim Helder said.
At Fort Leonard Wood, a storm demolished about a dozen homes and caused lesser damage to many more in a neighborhood that houses officers. The fort directed essential personnel to report for duty and that all nonessential personnel should stay away. Two people were taken to a fort hospital for treatment and were released. A door-to-door search looking for victims continued into the late afternoon.
The storm downed power lines and about 8,000 utility customers were left in the dark in Missouri on New Year’s Eve, said Mike O’Connell, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Public Safety.
He said the Red Cross was providing motel vouchers to people who had been displaced as temperatures were expected to dip, and Fort Leonard Wood officials also had plans to shelter displaced troops and their families.
The region has been bracing for severe weather for much of the week. Gulf moisture riding southerly winds pushed temperatures into the upper 60s and 70s on Thursday – ahead of a cold front expected to drop temperatures into the teens by Saturday morning.
While the spring brings most of the region’s tornadoes, violent weather at this time of year isn’t unheard of. A February 2008 outbreak killed 31 in Tennessee and 14 in Arkansas, and in January 1999 two separate outbreaks across the South killed 18, including seven in Arkansas.
Buonanno said there appears to be some association between changes in South Pacific Ocean temperatures and changes in the flow of the jet stream in the central part of the United States, causing an uptick in violent weather.
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