Dyersburg, Tenn. – Severe storms swept across the Midwest on Sunday, killing at least 14 people in Tennessee, Missouri and Illinois, officials said.
Local emergency officials reported eight deaths in west Tennessee’s Dyer County, and three in neighboring Gibson County, said Kurt Pickering, spokesman for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. Details on the deaths weren’t available.
In Missouri, strong winds were blamed for the deaths of at least two people. A 42-year-old man was killed when straight- line winds knocked over his mobile home near Circle City, Stoddard County Sheriff Carl Hefner said.
Another man was killed when a tree fell on him as he walked along a trail in Castlewood State Park near Ballwin in St. Louis County, a spokeswoman for St. Louis County police told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
In Illinois, a man was killed when a clothing store in Fairview Heights, east of St. Louis, collapsed in high winds, police Capt. Nick Gailius said.
Emergency crews were searching the rubble for any additional victims, their progress slowed by a gas leak, Gailius said. Others were injured in the collapse, he said.
The National Weather Service reported that tornadoes were spotted in five counties in Tennessee’s northwest corner, and officials said the storms caused extensive damage to buildings.
In Tennessee, the Weather Service reported that tornadoes were spotted in five counties in Tennessee’s northwest corner, and officials said the storms caused extensive damage to buildings.
Meanwhile, parts of Arkansas were battered with tornadoes and pelted with softball-sized hail Sunday in storms that destroyed several homes and left dozens of people injured.
A tornado reported near the northeastern Arkansas town of Marmaduke sent at least 45 people to Arkansas Methodist Medical Center at Paragould, said a spokesman, who added that many of the injuries were minor. Authorities closed off all access to Marmaduke, where damage reportedly was heavy.
It was one of a half-dozen tornadoes reported in the northeast part of the state; state emergency management officials reported at least two other injuries. A half-dozen houses were reported destroyed in Lawrence County, said Anthony Cavallucci at the Weather Service office in Memphis, Tenn.
Reports of hail and storm damage were widespread across northern and eastern Arkansas, but Newton Skiles, a meteorologist with the Weather Service’s office at North Little Rock, said the softball-sized hailstones fell mostly in scattered rural areas where there were few homes or vehicles to be damaged.
As the storms swept east, tornadoes were reported in several west Tennessee counties, causing some injuries, knocking out power and damaging buildings, officials said.
In Indianapolis, the storm hit with heavy wind and rain that shook downtown office towers as thousands of fans departed a free John Mellencamp concert.
Weather Service radar tracked a powerful thunderstorm with a possible tornado through downtown Indianapolis, Weather Service meteorologist John Ogren said, but officials would not be able to confirm whether the storm was a tornado until they inspect damage today.
Earlier, the line of storms swept through central and southern Indiana, causing widespread damage. There were no reports of injuries, but officials were just beginning to piece together the details Sunday night, Ogren said.
