Nearly 100 tornadoes rip across central US, leave 5 dead

Tornadoes appear faster than they can be tallied as powerful storm system in central US leaves five dead and 29 injured in Oklahoma alone

Nearly 100 tornadoes raked across the central United States, leaving five people dead and at least 29 injured Sunday in Oklahoma alone. Twisters ripped up homes and a hospital and cut power to hundreds of thousands of people.
Forecasters warned that more tornadoes from the violent storm system were possible before the day was over across a swath of land stretching hundreds of miles from southern Texas to northern Michigan.
Oklahoma emergency officials said five people had died after a tornado touched down at 12:18am Sunday in the northwest Oklahoma town of Woodward, home to 12,000 people. Search teams were scouring the debris for the trapped and injured as the sun came up.
The storms were part of an exceptionally strong system that the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma had warned about for days. The centre took the unusual step of warning people more than 24 hours in advance of the possible danger to life.
At the storm's height, tornadoes popped up faster than they could be tallied. Centre spokesman Chris Vaccaro said the centre had received at least 97 reports of tornadoes by dawn Sunday. He went on to warn that the threat wasn't over for people in several states in the nation's interior.
The outbreak began when tornado sirens went off before dawn in Oklahoma City on Saturday. As the wide-ranging storm system lumbered across the nation, storms were also reported in Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska, accompanied by lightning, hail and heavy downpours.
Woodward Mayor Roscoe Hill said warning sirens had sounded loudly Saturday afternoon when storms rumbled through, but that he had not heard the sirens go off for Sunday's tornado. He said the tornado had struck homes and businesses.
The American Red Cross summoned volunteers to drive relief trucks from Oklahoma City to assist rescue crews in and around Woodward.
"They're in chaos mode," said Rusty Surette, a regional communications director for the American Red Cross in Oklahoma City.
He said trucks with cots, food, water and medical and hygiene supplies would head to the area, where a shelter was established in a church for those rendered homeless. More than 8,000 people were without power.
Dave Wallace, chief executive officer of Woodward Regional Hospital, said 29 people, five of them in critical condition, were brought to the hospital, some with fractures and serious injuries. Three patients had to be transferred to other hospitals.
"We transferred them to a hospital with a higher level of care," Wallace said. "We're not a trauma canter."
At least ten tornadoes were reported in Kansas, mostly in rural western and central sections. A tornado in Wichita late Saturday night caused damage at the McConnell Air Force Base and the Spirit AeroSystems and Boeing plants. A mobile home park was also heavily damaged.
The county in which Wichita is located was declared a disaster zone, and preliminary estimates suggest that damages could be as high as $283 million.
Yvonne Tucker rushed to a shelter with about 60 of her neighbours at Pinaire Mobile Home Park. She said people were crying and screaming, and that the shelter's lights went out when the twister hit. When they came back outside, they found several homes destroyed, including hers.
"I didn't think it was that bad until I walked down my street and everything was gone," said Tucker, 49. "I don't know what to do. I don't know where to go. I've seen it on TV, but when it happens to you it is unreal. I just feel lost."
Kristin Dean said she was shaking as she was being pushed from her home in her wheelchair to the same shelter. She was able to grab a bag of her possessions, which was all she had left. Her home was gone.
"It got still," said the 37-year-old woman. "Then we heard a wham, things flying. Everybody screamed, huddling together.
"It is devastating, but you know, we are alive."
In other storm damages:
— Iowa emergency officials said a large part of the western town of Thurman had been destroyed by a storm Saturday night.
— A hospital in Creston, Iowa, suffered roof damage and had some of its windows blown out by the storm, but patients and staff were not hurt.
— In Nebraska, baseball-sized hail shattered windows and tore siding from houses in Petersburg. In southeast Nebraska, an apparent tornado took down barns, large trees and other rural structures.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/39345.aspx