Chicago: At least fourteen people were killed and one small town was “gone” as more than six dozen tornados tore across the central United States, flattening homes and smashing schools and businesses.
Trucks and trees were tossed aside like candy as deadly funnel clouds descended on five states. The images were surreal: a school bus smashed through a brick home, trucks thrown into lakes, stately brick homes reduced to rubble and wooden ones smashed into kindling, mobile homes flipped like tin cans.
Fire stations, schools and jails were among the buildings torn apart and a rescue squad car in Kentucky was flipped over and trapped under live power lines.
“I am constantly amazed by both the unpredictability and the ferocity of what Mother Nature can unleash when she chooses to,” Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels told CNN.
“We’ve learned to be pretty humble out here about the way in which we mere mortals can prepare no matter how hard we try.”
The latest wave of storms comes after a string of twisters killed 13 people earlier in the week.
The National Weather Service had received 83 reports of tornados in eight states by Friday evening, bringing the week’s total to 133, though not all were confirmed.
More could be on their way as a “particularly dangerous” tornado watch was set to continue until early Saturday in four states in a massive storm that also carried golf-ball sized hail.
Officials in Clark County, Indiana were scrambling to deal with widespread damage from the storm after roads were blocked by fallen trees and debris, and power and phone lines were knocked out. Luckily only one fatality was reported. (PTI)