Storms take deadly dance across mid-west U.S.A. by Alex Deakin
A barrage of severe spring thunderstorms spawned tornadoes and hail as big as grapefruits tore their way through eight US mid-western states yesterday, killing at least 27 people, injuring scores and destroying hundreds of homes.
The state of Tennessee was worst hit, with tornadoes striking five western counties, killing 23 people and has been reported to have destroyed over 1,000 buildings.
Most of the deaths were reported to be along a 40-km corridor, which stretched from Newbern, about 130 km north-east of Memphis, to Bradford, officials said. The Highway Patrol sent teams with search dogs to the area to check what remained of the homes and businesses and for anyone who might be trapped in the rubble.
Many more thunderstorms and tornadoes danced their way across parts of Iowa, Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, Ohio, Illinois and Indiana. The storms were blamed for killing one man in Missouri and another in Illinois, after a clothing store collapsed in the south of the state.
There were reports of half a dozen tornadoes in the state of Arkansas and the fire officials there have said that the storm have completely destroyed half of the town of Marmaduke.
The National Weather Service said that the storms developed after a cold front approaching from the west slammed into a mass of warm, humid air sitting over the central states, spawning huge storms. The National Weather Service said that one of the deadly tornadoes that hit Tennessee appeared to be an F-3 on the Fujita scale. It had winds of 158-206mph (254-332kmh).
The weather service's Storm Prediction Center, said it had preliminary reports of 63 tornadoes.
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