Severe weather kills at least 27 people in US Midwest and South
A possible tornado ripped across south-east Kentucky.
Storm systems sweeping across parts of the US Midwest and South have left at least 27 people dead, many of them in Kentucky where what appeared to be a devastating tornado pulverised homes.
In Kentucky, at least 18 people were killed by severe weather, and another 10 were in a critical condition in hospital, Governor Andy Beshear said on Saturday. Seventeen of the deaths were in Laurel County and one was in Pulaski County.
Among the dead was a firefighter with the Laurel County Fire Department who was fatally injured while responding to the havoc caused by the weather.
The fire department did not immediately say how Major Roger Leatherman was injured or when he died.
Kayla Patterson, her husband and their five children huddled in their basement in London as the tornado raged around them.
“You could literally hear just things ripping in the distance, glass shattering everywhere, just roaring like a freight train,” she recalled on Saturday. “It was terrible.”
Rescuers were “on the ground all night looking for possible survivors” and the search is continuing, according to Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Deputy Gilbert Acciardo. An emergency shelter was set up at a local high school and donations of food and other necessities were arriving.
The National Weather Service has not yet confirmed that a tornado struck, but meteorologist Philomon Geertson said it was likely. The extreme weather ripped across the largely rural area and extended to the London Corbin Airport shortly before midnight.
“Lives have been changed forever here tonight. This is a time we come together, and we pray for this community,” London Mayor Randall Weddle told WKYT-TV. “I have never personally witnessed what I’ve witnessed here tonight. There’s a lot of devastation.”
The storms were part of a weather system on Friday that killed seven people in Missouri and also spawned tornadoes in Wisconsin, left several hundred thousand customers without power in the Great Lakes region and brought a punishing heat wave to Texas.
St Louis Mayor Cara Spencer confirmed five deaths in her city and said more than 5,000 homes were affected.
“This is truly, truly devastating,” Ms Spencer said, adding that the city was in the process of declaring an emergency and an overnight curfew Friday had been put into place in the areas with the most damage.
The number of people injured was not immediately known. Barnes-Jewish Hospital received 20 to 30 patients from the storm with some in serious condition and most expected to be discharged by Friday night, according to hospital spokesperson Laura High.
St Louis Children’s Hospital received 15 patients with two of them expected to remain in the hospital into the weekend, she said.
National Weather Service radar indicated a tornado touched down between 2.30pm and 2.50pm in Clayton, Missouri, in the St. Louis area. The apparent tornado touched down in the area of Forest Park, home to the St Louis Zoo and the site of the 1904 World’s Fair and Olympic Games the same year.
At Centennial Christian Church, City of St Louis Fire Department Battalion Chief William Pollihan told The Associated Press that three people had to be rescued after part of the church crumbled. One of those people later died.
Christy Childs, a Saint Louis Zoo spokesperson, said in a text that the zoo would remain closed Saturday because of downed trees and other damage. Childs said all animals were safe and that there were no reports of significant injuries to staff, guests or animals.
“We can’t definitively say whether or not it was a tornado — it likely was,” National Weather Service meteorologist Marshall Pfahler said.
A tornado struck in Scott County, about 130 miles south of St Louis, killing two people, injuring several others and destroying multiple homes, Sheriff Derick Wheetley wrote on social media.
Forecasters say more severe weather could be on the way.
“Severe thunderstorms producing large to very large hail, damaging gusts and a couple of tornadoes are expected across the southern Plains,” the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Centre said on its website Saturday. The risk was especially high for north Texas.
