8 tornadoes confirmed in Ohio, 3 in Michigan as severe storms cross central US
PAVILION TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — At least eight tornadoes have touched down in Ohio and three have been confirmed in Michigan as severe storms barreled through the central U.S. late Tuesday and early Wednesday, killing one man in Tennessee when a tree toppled onto his vehicle.
The storm that rumbled across northeastern Tennessee brought high winds that knocked down powerlines and trees. Claiborne County Sheriff Bob Brooks said a 22-year-old man was in a car struck by one of the trees.
Tornadoes were first reported after dark Tuesday in parts of Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, according to the National Weather Service. The storms came a day after a deadly twister ripped through an Oklahoma town.
The National Weather Service confirmed tornadoes touched down Tuesday in western Ohio: five in Warren County and one each in Darke, Mercer and Auglaize counties. The weather service said crews are still surveying areas of Franklin and Butler counties to determine if tornadoes struck there, as well. Radar indicated a tornado struck Jefferson County, but teams will have to evaluate the damage to determine its rating, said Jeff Craven, a weather service meteorologist in Pittsburgh.
Crews on Wednesday were able to survey the damage caused by the strong storms that contained hail and heavy rains and knocked out power to thousands of utility customers.
In Michigan, weather service meteorologist Nathan Jeruzal said the tornadoes there touched down one each in Kalamazoo, Cass and Branch counties — all in the southwestern part of the state. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency for four counties.
Kalamazoo County's Portage area was hard hit as a FedEx facility was ripped apart and more than a dozen mobile homes were destroyed. About 50 people temporarily were trapped inside the damaged facility because of downed power lines.
More than a dozen homes were destroyed in a mobile home park in adjacent Pavilion Township and 16 people were injured, said Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller.
Samantha Smith clutched a box Wednesday afternoon as she stepped from her mother’s partially wrecked home in Pavilion Township, about 137 miles (220 kilometers) west of Detroit. Inside the box were her grandmother’s ashes. Being able to recover the most cherished of items offered Smith a rare moment of relief amid the storm’s devastation.
Her parents and brother were injured during the storm. Her brother suffered a broken pelvis and broken back, but he and other victims all survived, Smith added.
“I have thanked God probably a billion times since this happened yesterday,” she said. “My kids are healthy and good. We just gotta make back up what we lost.”
Travis Wycoff ventured out Tuesday night after seeing on radar that a tornado had touched down in the Portage area, and he said he helped an elderly couple out of their partially collapsed home and freed a service dog from a home.
“There were a lot of people running through the streets trying to find people and their pets,” Wycoff said. “It was just a lot of chaos.”
More than 15,000 customers were without power in Michigan Wednesday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us.
In southern Indiana, the National Weather Service confirmed a tornado with a preliminary EF-0 rating and 85 mph (137 kph) winds touched down early Wednesday, damaging homes in a subdivision north of the city of Sellersburg, located about 12 miles (19 kilometers) north of Louisville, Kentucky.
The Clark County Emergency Management Agency said the storm damaged 24 structures.
Candice Holmes, a resident of the Lewis & Clark subdivision north of Sellersburg, said she, her husband and son sought shelter in their bathroom when they heard the approaching storm and “the wind just picked up all at once.”
“It was over as soon as it started, but it was definitely a scary moment," Holmes told WDRB-TV. "And I’m glad we’re alive.”
Just outside of Pittsburgh, a weather service team confirmed a brief tornado with maximum winds of 105 mph (169 kph) overturned a trailer and snapped more than a dozen trees early Wednesday in Findlay Township, Pennsylvania.
In northern West Virginia, a tornado with maximum winds of about 130 mph (209 kph) that started early Wednesday in far eastern Ohio hit the community of Fairdale about an hour northwest of Pittsburgh. The weather service said it marked the first recorded tornado in Hancock County. It was at least the 11th tornado this year in West Virginia, which sees two tornadoes in an average year.
Baseball-sized hail was reported Wednesday in areas just southwest of St. Louis, Missouri. Heavy downpours caused flash flooding and at least one water rescue near Sullivan, a town that was struck by a small tornado just two days earlier. Damaging hail also was reported in the Kansas City area.
A National Weather Service team also was headed to Hot Springs, Arkansas, to determine the strength of a tornado that hit early Wednesday morning, forecaster Tabitha Clarke said. The twister damaged some homes, uprooted trees and downed power lines. There were no immediate reports of injuries from the tornado, according to the state Division of Emergency Management.
Tuesday's storms came a day after parts of the central United States were battered by heavy rain, strong winds, hail and twisters. Both the Plains and Midwest have been hammered by tornadoes this spring.
Across the U.S., the entire week is looking stormy. The Midwest and the South are expected to get the brunt of the bad weather through the rest of the week, including in Indianapolis, Memphis, Nashville, St. Louis and Cincinnati — cities where more than 21 million people live. It should be clear over the weekend.
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Murphy reported from Oklahoma City. Associated Press journalists around the country contributed to this report, including Rio Yamat, Heather Hollingsworth, Colleen Slevin, Jim Salter, Kathy McCormack, Sarah Brumfield, Beatrice Dupuy and Alexa St. John.
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