Cleanup Begins After Midwest Storms Kill 6

Residents of the Midwest began clearing away wreckage May 9 following a wave of powerful storms that splintered homes, knocked out power to thousands and killed six people.

Hundreds of homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed May 8 in Kansas, Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri and 150,000 Missouri utility customers lost power. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency.

In southern Illinois, more than 56,200 customers of the utility Ameren still had no electricity late Saturday, the company said. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn on May 9 declared three southern counties disaster areas.

Trees were down and windows were broken on the campus of Southern Illinois University’s Carbondale campus.

Two people were killed near Poplar Bluff, Mont., when wind knocked a tree onto their sport utility vehicle. In Missouri’s Dallas County, a man in his 70s had a fatal heart attack after he and his wife were sucked from their home by a tornado and thrown into a field up to 100 feet (30 meters) away, said county emergency management director Larry Highfill. The wife was hospitalized in fair condition.

A 54-year-old woman was killed in southeast Kansas in a mobile home that was blown off its foundation. And in central Kentucky, officials blamed a tornado with winds of 120 mph for the deaths of two people whose bodies were found in a pond near a mobile home community.

On May 9, a line of thunderstorms stretched from Arkansas and northern Mississippi across Tennessee and Kentucky.

Some homes were evacuated early in southern West Virginia because of flooding caused by more than two inches of rain, said state Homeland Security Operations Director Paul Howard. High water also closed several main roads. No injuries were reported. Appalachian Power reported about 6,000 customers were still without service Saturday evening, down from about 10,000 earlier in the day.

Wind in southeast Kansas area reached 120 mph (193 kph), destroying the New Albany United Methodist Church, the town’s post office and at least one home, authorities said.