LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A line of thunderstorms fed by warm weather continued spinning off unusual January tornadoes Tuesday, killing a man in Arkansas and carrying a cow three-quarters of a mile.
At least three people died and hundreds were evacuated because of flooding in Indiana, where more than 5 inches of rain in some areas pushed rivers and streams over their banks. Two of the victims were young children trapped in a submerged car.
A tornado that hit Appleton, Ark., rolled a doublewide mobile home off its cinder-block supports, killing a man and injuring his wife. The trailer appeared to have rolled for 50 yards before smashing against a stand of trees.
Kirk Killins said the tornado picked up one of his family’s cows. It survived, even though the storm “probably carried her about three-quarters of a mile,” he said.
Another tornado was spotted Tuesday afternoon in northwestern Tennessee. The Dyer County Sheriff’s Department reported no injuries.
The National Weather Service declared tornado watches or warnings Tuesday afternoon in states including Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky. Several tornadoes were confirmed or reported Monday in Wisconsin, Arkansas, Illinois, Oklahoma and Missouri, where two people were killed.
In northern Indiana, a sport utility vehicle carrying a woman and her five young children stalled on a flooded road in a rural area near Rochester before floating into deeper water, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Department said.
The driver, 29-year-old Megihann K. Leininger, was able to rescue three of her children, ages 3 months to 4 years. But she was unable to get to 5-year-old Shay Leininger and 2-year-old Ashley Pruitt, who died, the Sheriff’s Department said.
To the southwest in Jasper County, a 56-year-old man drowned in Remington when his truck was swept into Carpenter Creek floodwaters, said Shawn Brown, a conservation officer with the Department of Natural Resources.
