Midwest Tornadoes: 'Life-Threatening' Storms Feared This Weekend

OMAHA, Neb. — Tornadoes were spotted across the Midwest and Plains Saturday as an outbreak of unusually strong weather seized the region, and forecasters sternly warned that "life-threatening" weather could intensify overnight.

Storms were reported in Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska and Oklahoma. Emergency officials in Iowa said that high winds or a tornado damaged a hospital in Creston, but no injuries were reported. Authorities also said about 75 percent of the small western Iowa community of Thurman was destroyed, with no injuries reported there either.

In Nebraska, baseball-sized hail shattered windows and ripped siding from houses. In Oklahoma, more than 5,000 people gathered for a rattlesnake hunt in Woods County scattered when a tornado touched down there, said the county's emergency management director, Steve Foster.

National Weather Service forecasters issued sobering outlooks that the worst of the weather would hit around nightfall, predicting that conditions were right for exceptionally strong tornadoes. Weather officials and emergency management officials worried most about what would happen if strong storms hit when people were sleeping, not paying attention to weather reports and unlikely to hear warning sirens. When it's dark, it's also more difficult for weather spotters to clearly see funnel clouds or tornadoes.

"This could go into, certainly, to overnight situations, which is always of immense concern to us," said Michelann Ooten, an official with the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.

The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., which specializes in tornado forecasting, said that the outbreak could be a "high-end, life-threatening event" nearly two days before the weather hit.

It was just the second time in U.S. history that the center issued a high-risk warning more than 24 hours in advance. The first was in April 2006, when nearly 100 tornadoes tore across the southeastern U.S., killing a dozen people and damaging more than 1,000 homes in Tennessee.

While there were no fatalities as of Saturday evening, storm spottings were plentiful. Storms were erupting faster than storm spotters could tally them all. The danger kicked off Saturday morning when tornado sirens sounded in Oklahoma City around dawn.

One of the suspected tornadoes in central Oklahoma hit near the small town of Piedmont, and followed a similar path as a tornado last May that killed several people, Mayor Valerie Thomerson said. Later in the day, several tornadoes were reported to have touched down in the northeast part of the state. But besides damage to a camper, the chaos was minor.

In Iowa, Thurman, a town of about 250 people, was severely damaged by a possible tornado. Fremont County Emergency Management Director Mike Crecelius said that about 75 percent of the town was destroyed, but there were no injuries or deaths. Crecelius said the town was on lockdown Saturday night and wasn't letting anyone in. He said town officials and residents expect to start cleaning up on Sunday.

In Creston, about 75 miles from Des Moines, the Greater Regional Medical Center suffered roof damage and had some of its windows blown out by a storm, said John Benson, a spokesman for Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Patients were being moved to a hospital in Osceola, about 30 miles away. No injuries were reported.

Strong storms knocked out power in Des Moines, Council Bluffs and Sioux City. The National Weather Service in Des Moines also received reports of high winds that toppled at least five semis on Interstate 29.

In southeast Nebraska, an apparent tornado took down barns, large trees, and some small rural structures.

In northeast Nebraska, Boone County Sheriff David Spiegel said baseball-sized hail had damaged vehicles, shattered windows and tore siding from houses in and around Petersburg, about 140 miles northwest of Omaha. Johnson County emergency director Clint Strayhorn said he was still trying to determine how long the twister was on the ground and how much damage it did.

"I'm on a 2-mile stretch that this thing is on the ground and I haven't even gotten to the end of it yet," he said Saturday afternoon as he walked the path of destruction near the Johnson-Nemaha county line. He didn't immediately know of any injuries.

Two possible tornadoes were reported father south in Nebraska near the Kansas border, and as many as 10 others were reported in largely rural parts of western and central Kansas, including one north of Dodge City that was said to be on the ground for a half-hour, weather officials said.

In Salina, Kan., tornado sirens sounded after a possible tornado was spotted nearby. National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Scott also said tornadoes were reported in the central and western Kansas counties of Pratt, Stafford, Rush and Hodgeman. There were reports of a home damaged in Rush County and an old schoolhouse damaged in Hodgeman County.

Tornado threats caused some weekend festivities to be called off. The threat prompted University of Nebraska-Lincoln athletic officials to cancel the annual spring football game minutes before Saturday's kick-off.

The McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kan., relocated 16 aerial refueling tankers to Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota because of the risk of hail from the storms. And four air refueling aircraft from Forbes Field in Topeka were flown to Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, and three other aircraft were moved into hangars to protect them from the potential for large hail in the Shawnee County area.

Forecasters warned that even once the danger Saturday night passed, the threat from the storm system wasn't over. Severe weather was also possible for a significant band of the center of the country on Sunday.

"The threat isn't over with tonight, unfortunately. Severe weather is possible again tomorrow from east Texas and Arkansas and up into the Great Lakes," said Bill Bunting, chief of operations at the Storm Prediction Center, which is part of the National Weather Service.

___

Associated Press reporters David Pitt in Des Moines, Iowa; Sean Murphy and Rochelle Hines in Oklahoma City; Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Mo.; Erin Gartner in Chicago; and Ed Donahue in Washington contributed to this report.

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Tornadoes On The Ground In Oklahoma

@ BreakingNews : Two tornadoes with debris on the ground near Cherokee, OK - via @news9 broadcast http://t.co/kete7hqm

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Live Tornado Video

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Comments

[cartooniey]

08:00 PM on 04/16/2012

*realises*....i just slept throuh the whole thing...

[Lenape105]

06:50 PM on 04/15/2012

@grumpy63528:
I'm glad you finally admit that it's anthropogenic climate change.

[Ronster1954]

06:10 AM on 04/16/2012

You’re a total idiot…and cruel…

[Tinman0670]

04:56 PM on 04/16/2012

I'm an idiot? F@%k you! Look in the mirror, with your idiotic name. What's cruel is people that keep voting these nazis into power and destroying this country.

[Canefighter]

11:36 AM on 04/15/2012

You have to give some credit to the professional tornado chasers. They have collected so much information over the past few years to really help predict and to understand more about how a tornado functions. I would love to do it, bur I am to old and slow for it.

[flxdcatbruce]

07:58 PM on 04/15/2012

I never thought of that, but yes I think they deserve more then some, but a lot of the credit. Their information has proven to be very valuable. All involved deserve a huge pat on the back for their hard work as I do believe they are saving a lot of lives. I live here in Florida and have noticed in the past ten years or so that the Hurricane paths have been very correct and very much in advance....yes, some modern technology is a good thing, but the people that know how to use it are irreplaceable!

[bdgrizcp]

09:37 AM on 04/15/2012

One thing to applaud here: the job NOAA and the NWS did in predicting this outbreak. They read the tea leaves pretty darn well. They are to be commended for sticking their necks out like this. Thanks to all of you.

[kmd4excel]

09:29 AM on 04/15/2012

It seems to me that the more anthropomorphic climate change is discredited, the more emphasis is placed on stories, and events, and the spin in these stories is designed to make us think this has never happened before.

Of course these kinds of super cell eruptions have been happening in Tornado Alley since time immemorial. How does one think this region got its name in the first place? April and May are prime tornado times in this region; I know, I grew up there. August, September, and early October even, are also prime tornado times.

There is nothing new here. Yet, the propagandists in the MSM would have you believe there is.

[dawlishgal]

10:35 AM on 04/15/2012

There has been a 40% increase in insurance claims after lightning strikes in the past 2 1/2 years. It's easy to overlook the change in the frequencies of these events, especially if one wants desperately to believe the Republican party who is protecting its puppeteers in the oil and coal businesses and the polluters. What do scientists have to gain by "pretending" that global warming is a danger to us all compated to what big oil and big coal have the gain by pretending it's not? For gawdssakes, follow the money.

Who, exactly, will lose if we act as though global warming (and the huge amount of variation at the extremes) are real? As I said, big oil, big coal and major polluters. What happens if we ignore the threats and do nothing and the scientists who warned us turn out to have been right? Who loses then? All of us and our children and their children and their children's children. There has been so much bamboozling going on and so little active information seeking, that it terrifies me to listen to people who refuse to pay attention and swallow whole the neocon propaganda. Would it hurt anybody to drive a smaller car? To try to conserve energy? To opt for cleaner forms of energy? What's the problem here? Is it that people have been conned into thinking that the scientists are the liars? And, being gullible suckers who get nooze from Faux, they believe it?

[kmd4excel]

12:43 PM on 04/15/2012

Yes, indeed, "For gwadssakes, follow the money". AlGore (aka Big Al the Environment's Pal), is now a multi-millionaire. How? Off of inducing the scare of "global warming", and shystering corporations to buy "carbon credits". Oh, and BTW, Big Al's carbon footprint is larger than that of a few 3rd world countries. James Hansen, NASA. Makes hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking engagements to "climate change" conferences. Never mind that the money he's making brings up many ethical questions about his "research". Greenpeace, Sierra Club, et al, keep their contributions flowing by screaming "Global Warming!" from the rooftops. I could go on, but we see that there are several, within the movement, who have enriched themselves handsomely.

It is not the right who ignore science, but the left, dawlish. 20 years ago, Ted Danson was the front man for a group of environmentalists who told us the seas would be barren of life by now. Never mind they were wrong, dead wrong. "The Population Bomb" came out when I was a teenager. All of the "science" in that book was debunked long ago -- by the fact that famine is not widespread worldwide, nor have mass die offs occurred. Again, I could go on.

These scares are designed for one reason: Rob freedom, control the masses, and enrich the few over the many. In other words, another form of either communism, socialism, or fascism, depending on what specific characteristics they take on. And you, dawlish, are but an unwitting dupe.

[kmd4excel]

12:51 PM on 04/15/2012

Would it hurt everyone to drive a smaller car? Yes. There are many people who need larger cars, or trucks, to make a living, dawlish. I conserve energy everytime chance I get, because it saves me money. There are no viable "alternative" energies in place as of yet. Am I going to fill my gas tank with sunshine? Or wind? Put a whirlygig on the roof?

And dawlish, have you even looked at the arguments of the other side? Have you even looked at the evidence that research has been made up out of wholecloth? Have you ever wondered why the vast majority of those espousing a "green" lifestyle for everyone else, fail to live it themselves? (with a few notable exceptions such as Daryl Hannah and Ed Begely) Do you bother to read the stories where scientists leaving the climate change side and coming over to the rational side claim they have done so because of the corruption they see in the "research"?

Do you even bother to truly inform yourself dawlish?

[Uncle Leo]

09:28 AM on 04/15/2012

Dogs and cats sleeping together

[kmd4excel]

09:23 AM on 04/15/2012

There are a string of tornadoes in the Midwest in April? In Tornado Alley? Really?????? How can this be????? I grew up in Kansas, and by golly, I NEVER heard of tornadoes in April!!!!

[smp276dp]

09:12 AM on 04/15/2012

We hope for the best and pray for those that live in harms way.

[glyngcgb]

09:05 AM on 04/15/2012

It's W's Fault....,

[krisnelson800]

08:49 AM on 04/15/2012

Zeus is just mad, 'cause he and Hera got a divorce.

[dynamicdy]

08:43 AM on 04/15/2012

Frightening stuff. Makes living in New Jersey tolerable. All we have to worry about is taxes and crooked politicians.

[smp276dp]

09:12 AM on 04/15/2012

Everyone worries about them every where

[carilyn]

09:16 AM on 04/15/2012

Well your 1/2 right. Taxes. Crooked politicians are a breed that exists everywhere, and multiplying by leaps and bounds daily.

[WorldsLeader]

08:33 AM on 04/15/2012

I find it hard to believe that, there are still people out there that don't have shelter holes dug by their homes. You have to get "under the ground", there is no other assured, safe place!

[smp276dp]

09:13 AM on 04/15/2012

Be careful what you ask for. It could come back to bite you on the posterior.

[Rawbird]

09:15 AM on 04/15/2012

Really. You actually want tornadoes to kill people... I'll bet you are a rep right-wing chritian!!!

[ThomKat]

08:07 AM on 04/15/2012

What is the similarity between a redneck divorce and a tornado? Either way, the trailer house goes. Seriously, to all my old friends in Scott City and Garden City, Kansas, PLEASE STAY SAFE!