6 killed as 'dangerous' storm system sweeps across US

[Jonathan Fairfield]

6 killed as 'dangerous' storm system sweeps across US

JEFF MARTIN, Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — A storm system forecasters called "particularly dangerous" killed at least six people as it swept across the country, with tornadoes touching down in Indiana and Mississippi.

A tree blew over onto a house in Arkansas, killing an 18-year-old woman and trapping a 1-year-old child inside, authorities said Wednesday. Rescuers pulled the toddler safely from the home.

Two others were killed in Tennessee.

Authorities in Mississippi did not have details of those dead after multiple tornadoes hit the state.

In Benton County, where two deaths occurred and at least two people were missing, search-and-rescue crews were doing a house-by-house search to make sure residents were accounted for.

A tornado damaged or destroyed at least 20 homes in the northwest part of the state. Clarksdale Mayor Bill Luckett said the only confirmed casualty was a dog killed by storm debris. Planes at a small airport overturned and an unknown number of people were injured.

"I'm looking at some horrific damage right now," the mayor said. "Sheet metal is wrapped around trees; there are overturned airplanes; a building is just destroyed."

Television images showed the tornado appeared to be on the ground for more than 10 minutes. Interstate 55 was closed in both directions as the tornado approached, the Mississippi Highway Patrol said.

After an EF-1 tornado struck the south Indianapolis suburb of Greenwood, television stations showed pictures of damage including a portion of a roof blown off a veterinary office.

The Tennessee Department of Health confirmed Wednesday night that two people were killed in severe storms. Officials said the deaths — one male and one female — occurred in Perry County. No further details were available.

The biggest threat for tornadoes was in a region of 3.7 million people in Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas and parts of Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky, according to the national Storm Prediction Center in Oklahoma. The center issued a "particularly dangerous situation" alert for the first time since June 2014, when two massive EF4 twisters devastated a rural Nebraska town, killing two people.

The greatest risk for a few "intense, long-tracked tornadoes" will be through Wednesday night.

About 120 miles (193 kilometers) east of the tornado, Brandi Holland, a convenience store clerk in Tupelo, Mississippi, said people were reminded of a tornado that damaged or destroyed more than 2,000 homes and businesses in April 2014.

"They're opening all our tornado shelters because they say there's an 80 percent chance of a tornado today," Holland said.

Elsewhere, skiers on the slopes out West got a fresh taste of powder and most people in the Northeast enjoyed spring-like temperatures as they finished up last-minute Christmas shopping.

"It's too warm for me. I don't like it. I prefer the cold in the winter, in December. Gives you more of that Christmas feel," said Daniel Flores, a concierge in New York, his light jacket zipped open as he shopped in Manhattan with his three children.

Only about half of the nation, mostly in the West, should expect the possibility of a white Christmas.

In the small coastal town of Loxley, Alabama, Mandy Wilson watched the angry gray sky and told drivers to be careful as she worked a cash register at Love's Travel Stop.

"It's very ugly; it's very scary," Wilson said. "There's an 18-wheeler turned over on I-10. There's water standing really bad. It's a really interesting way to spend Christmas Eve eve."

In parts of Georgia, including Atlanta, a flood watch was posted through Friday evening as more than 4 inches (102 millimeters) was expected, the National Weather Service said.

The threat of severe weather just before Christmas is unusual, but not unprecedented, said Greg Carbin, a meteorologist at the national Storm Prediction Center.

Twisters hit southeast Mississippi exactly a year ago, killing five people and injuring dozens of others. On Christmas Day in 2012, a storm system spawned several tornadoes, damaging homes from Texas to Alabama.

Emergency officials in Tennessee worried that powerful winds could turn holiday yard decorations into projectiles, the same way gusts can fling patio furniture in springtime storms, said Marty Clements, director of the Madison County Emergency Management Agency in Jackson, the state's largest city between Memphis and Nashville.

In Arkansas, Pope County Sheriff Shane Jones said the 18-year-old woman was killed when a tree crashed into her bedroom. The woman and her 1 ½-year-old sister were sleeping in a bedroom of the house near Atkins about 65 miles (105 kilometers) northwest of Little Rock, when winds uprooted the tree that crashed through the roof.

-- (c) Associated Press 2015-12-24

[burgdawg]

(paraphrasing Johnny Carson) "...mobile home parks attract tornadoes..."

The real idiots in the Heartland of USA are the moronic self-styled "STORM CHASERS."

These thrill seekers are not dealing with a full deck. They are true hucksters, trying to sell their vids to the Weather Channel, etc.

My neighbor's side biz is as a statistician for various credit card companies and he came up with an excellent hack too PREVENT

azzhat storm chasers from renting cars and deliberately trashing them out. Really, a bunch of cross referencing was easy to program.

Any readers here ever "run the gauntlet" from Pueblo. Colorado to Cheyenne, Wyoming? You stand an excellent chance of having your vehicle "ball-peened." This area is well known for "rotaries." Think horizontal tornado. People who do not know better think erroneously "tornadoes are cool."

No, they are dangerous. Believe me, you never want to see one, ever.

Look up the F5 that flattened Childress, Texas years ago.