More storms battered the upper central United States late on Saturday, a day after a tornado all but wiped an Iowa town off the map.
Severe storms and funnel clouds were reported on Saturday night in a band across Nebraska, Iowa, northern Illinois and other states across the Great Plains and Midwest regions. Airline traffic in the central US was delayed for hours by the inclement weather.
Forecasts for Sunday called for continued violent weather across the same region and stretching into the northeastern states of Pennsylvania and New York.
On Friday night, Bradgate, Iowa, a village of about 100 people, was struck by a tornado that damaged practically every structure.
Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack said that about 90% of the homes in the town were destroyed.
Hundreds of volunteers clamoured into the community to help with clean-up efforts on Saturday. Vilsack called the response ”Iowa at its best”.
About 15 injuries were reported, all minor. The absence of fatalities was credited to advance warning from weather radars and a civil defence alert that allowed residents to take cover.
”To my knowledge, every single soul in town is now accounted for,” Bradgate Mayor Martin Brown, whose own house was severely damaged, told the Des Moines Register newspaper.
The region around Detroit, Michigan, suffered flash flooding from heavy rain on Friday. With more rain in the forecast, parts of Michigan and neighbouring Wisconsin were under flood watches for Sunday.
Across the upper central US, three deaths since Friday were blamed on the weather from trees falling on to automobiles. — Sapa-DPA