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Dozens of overnight tornadoes rip across Midwest, killing 5 people, leveling homes
By Associated Press
April 15, 12:27 PM
WOODWARD, Okla. — The television was on and tuned to forecasters’ dire warnings of an impending storm when Greg Tomlyanobich heard a short burst from a tornado siren blare after midnight. Then silence. Then rumbling.
The 52-year-old quickly grabbed his wife and grandson, hurrying them into the emergency cellar as debris whirled around their heads at their mobile home park in northwest Oklahoma. They huddled inside with about 20 other people before the tornado — among more than 100 reported to have swept across the nation’s midsection during the weekend — roared across the ground above, ripping homes from their foundations.
More than a dozen possible tornadoes were reported Saturday as forecasters warned residents across the nation's midsection to brace for "life-threatening" weather.
More than a dozen possible tornadoes were reported Saturday as forecasters warned residents across the nation's midsection to brace for "life-threatening" weather.
“It scared the hell out of me,” Tomlyanobich said.
The storm killed five people and injured more than two dozen in and around Woodward, a town about 140 miles northwest of Oklahoma City, but it was the only tornado that caused fatalities. Many of the touchdowns raked harmlessly across isolated stretches of rural Kansas, and though communities in Iowa and Kansas were hit, residents and officials credited days of urgent warnings from forecasters for saving lives.
When Tomlyanobich emerged from the underground shelter after the storm had subsided, he saw a scattered trail of destruction: home insulation, siding and splintered wood where homes once stood; trees stripped of leaves, clothing and metal precariously hanging from limbs.
“It just makes you sick to your stomach. Just look at that mangled steel,” he said Sunday, pointing to what appeared to be a giant twisted steel frame that had landed in the middle of the mobile home park, which is surrounded by rural land dotted with oil field equipment.
The storms were part of an exceptionally strong system that the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., which specializes in tornado forecasting, had warned about for days. The center took the unusual step of warning people more than 24 hours in advance of a possible “high-end, life-threatening event.”
Woodward suffered the worst of the destruction from the storms, which also struck in Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska. Bloodied survivors in the 12,000-resident town emerged to find flipped cars, smashed trailers and mangled power lines. Streets were left dotted with mangled vehicles, toppled power lines and leveled buildings.
Retired firefighter Marty Logan said he spotted the tornado when it knocked down power lines, causing flashes of light, and saw a radio tower’s blinking lights go black. He later saw a man emerge from a twisted, wrecked sport utility vehicle that had been tossed along the side of the road.
“The guy had blood coming down his face,” Logan said. “It was scary, because I knew it was after midnight and a lot of people were in bed.”
Authorities said a signal tower for Woodward’s tornado sirens was struck by lightning and hit by a tornado early Sunday morning. Police Chief Harvey Rutherford said the tower that was supposed to send a repeating signal to the town’s tornado siren system was knocked out.
Considering the tornado struck at night and the sirens were damaged, it’s remarkable that there wasn’t a greater loss of life, Rutherford said. “We had the hand of God take care of us,” he said.
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