OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) ― 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, 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 that stretched hundreds of miles from southern Texas to northern Michigan.
Oklahoma emergency officials said five people died after a tornado touched down at 12:18 a.m. 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 center took the unusual step of warning people more than 24 hours in advance of the danger to life.
An aerial view of the destruction of the Oaklawn neighborhood in Wichita, Kansas on Sunday. ( AP-Yonhap News)
At the storm’s height, tornadoes popped up faster than they could be tallied. The center’s spokesman, Chris Vaccaro, said it had received at least 97 reports of tornadoes by dawn Sunday. He warned 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 also were reported in Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska, accompanied by lightning, large hail and heavy downpours.
Woodward Mayor Roscoe Hill said warning sirens sounded loudly Saturday afternoon when storms rumbled through but he didn’t hear the sirens go off for Sunday’s tornado. He said the tornado struck homes and businesses.
The American Red Cross summoned volunteers to drive relief trucks from Oklahoma City to aid the 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 center.’’
At least 10 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 where Wichita is located was declared a state of disaster and said preliminary estimates suggest damages could be as high as $283 million.
Yvonne Tucker rushed to a shelter with about 60 of her neighbors at Pinaire Mobile Home Park. She said people were crying and screaming, and the shelter’s lights went out when the twister hit. When they came back outside, they found several homes destroyed, including hers.
