VAN, Texas — Emergency responders searched through splintered wreckage Monday after a line of tornadoes battered several small communities in Texas and Arkansas, killing at least five people, including a young couple who died trying to shield their daughter from the storm.
The couple, in their late 20s, died when a twister hit their mobile home late Sunday in the Arkansas town of Nashville.
Michael and Melissa Mooneyhan were trying to protect their daughter when the parents’ trailer flipped over and “exploded,” Howard County coroner John Gray said.
“It’s a miracle that little girl survived,” Gray said. The girl, who is about 18 months old, was taken to a hospital and then released to relatives.
“That poor little girl is never going to know them,” Gray said. “But she’s young enough that she’ll never remember what happened.”
The two parents met when they were teenagers attending different high schools and were married in April 2004, before they even graduated.
Polly McCammack, who also lives in Nashville, is Melissa’s third cousin. A week ago, she said, the close-knit family lost their grandmother, who “practically raised” Melissa and her siblings.
“The family has been hit hard. They’re strong, but it’s almost like to the point you’re afraid to breathe,” McCammack said.
Relatives went to the site of the destroyed home looking for mementos and toys they could salvage for the little girl.
National Weather Service investigators confirmed a tornado with a preliminary EF2 rating and winds estimated at 125 mph touched down in Nashville, meteorologist Travis Washington said.
In neighboring Texas, a likely tornado pummeled the small town of Van, damaging about 30 percent of the community, according to Chuck Allen, fire marshal and emergency management coordinator for Van Zandt County.
Allen said officials had confirmed that the tornado was an EF3, with winds from 135 mph to 140 mph.
Allen has said about 30 percent of the community, which has a population of 2,600 and is about 70 miles southeast of Dallas, was damaged.
At least 42 people were injured, according to two east Texas hospitals. Four patients were in critical condition.
Preliminary reports indicate 20 to 25 tornadoes formed Sunday in South Dakota, Iowa, Oklahoma and Texas, according to meteorologist Greg Carbin of the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla.
