A tornado with winds exceeding 255kph tore a path of devastation through western Kentucky and southern Indiana early on Sunday as residents slept, reducing dozens of mobile homes to splinters and turning entire blocks of buildings into piles of rubble. At least 22 people were killed and 200 others injured.
Rescuers who arrived at the hard-hit Eastbrooke mobile-home park in Evansville shortly after the tornado struck reported seeing children wandering in the debris, looking for their parents, and parents searching for missing children. Children’s bicycles and other toys were strewn amid mattresses, chairs and insulation.
The tornado, the deadliest to hit the state since 1974, hit a horse-racing track near Henderson, Kentucky, and then crossed into Indiana at about 2am.
”It was just a real loud roar. It didn’t seem like it lasted over 45 seconds to a minute, then it was calm again,” said Steve Gaiser, who lives near the Eastbrooke mobile-home park in Evansville.
At least 17 people were killed in the mobile-home park, according to Eric Williams of the Vanderburgh county sheriff’s department.
More people were believed to still be trapped in the debris, and National Guard units were called in to help with search-and-recovery efforts.
”They were in trailer homes, homes that were just torn apart by the storm, so they’re just now getting in there trying to find people,” deputy Vanderburgh county coroner Annie Groves said. ”It’s just terrible.”
Five other people were confirmed dead in neighbouring Warrick county, east of Evansville, where the Ohio River city of Newburgh was hit. No deaths were reported in Kentucky.
Indiana homeland security spokesperson Pam Bright said about 100 of the 350 or so homes at the Evansville mobile-home park were destroyed and 125 others there were damaged.
‘More than words can say’
Larry and Christie Brown rode out the storm inside one mobile home.
”Man, it was more than words can say,” Larry Brown said. ”We opened the door and there wasn’t anything sitting there.”
Chad Bennett, assistant fire chief in Newburgh, Indiana, told CNN that sirens sounded, but most people did not hear them because it happened in the middle of the night.
The tornado developed in a line of thunderstorms that rolled rapidly eastward across the Ohio Valley.
Ryan Presley, a weather-service meteorologist in Paducah, Kentucky, said a single tornado touched down near Smith Mills in western Kentucky, jumped the river and cut a 24km to 32km swathe through Indiana’s Vanderburgh and Warrick counties.
The tornado appeared to be at least an F3 on the Fujita scale, which ranges from F0, the weakest, to F5, the strongest. An F3 has winds ranging from 254kph to 331kph, and the tornado that hit on Sunday may have been even stronger, Presley said.
Warrick county Sheriff Marvin Heilman said the victims included a woman who was eight months pregnant, her husband and a young child in the rural town of Degonia Springs, Indiana. A teenage girl was also killed near Boonville, Indiana, and her father was critically injured, he said.
Tim Martin (42) was at his parents’ mobile home when they heard the wind, and then the tornado picked up the home and shoved it into the neighbour’s yard.
He and his parents escaped unharmed, but they heard several neighbours calling for help. A nearby mobile home was overturned, and another appeared to have been obliterated.
”All I could see was debris,” he said. ”I thought it was a bad dream.”
Patty Ellerbusch (53) said she and her husband were in bed at their hilltop home in Newburgh when a relative called and warned them of the tornado. They heard a low roar and ran for the basement.
She made it downstairs, but her husband did not. He was blasted with shattered drywall, wood and other debris as the tornado shredded the home’s roof.
”He was running down the hallway, and it knocked him down and ripped his glasses off. He said it felt like being in a wind tunnel,” she said. The storm stripped the roof off the couple’s home and destroyed their barn.
Deadliest since 1974
Bright said it was the deadliest tornado in Indiana since April 3 1974, when an outbreak of several tornadoes killed 47 people and destroyed 2 069 homes.
Tornadoes can occur at any time of the year, but peak tornado season in the United States lasts from March through the summer months, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The Ellis Park racetrack, between Evansville and Henderson, Kentucky, had significant damage to barns, the grandstand and other buildings, and some workers were injured, said Paul Kuerzi, the track’s vice-president and general manager.
Kuerzi said three horses died from injuries suffered in the storm.
He said it was too early to know if any other horses were injured.
About 150 horses in training were stabled there.
Elsewhere, a different tornado barrelled through downtown Munfordville, Kentucky, before dawn on Sunday, causing significant damage to more than 40 homes and businesses.
Mike Roeder, a spokesperson for utility company Vectren, said 25 000 homes were without power on Sunday. There also were reports of natural-gas leaks. — Sapa-AP