Storms bring rain, snow and tornadoes

updated 8:48 p.m. ET April 11, 2008

LAWRENCEBURG, Tenn. - Another round of severe storms raked the South with rain, hail and high winds Friday, damaging homes and injuring at least five people in Tennessee and Kentucky.

Tornado or severe storm watches were also issued in parts of Mississippi and Alabama, and some minor damage was reported.

A mother and two children were hurt when strong thunderstorms moved through southern Kentucky in the early morning, knocking over their trailer near Bowling Green. Tara Duvall, a spokeswoman for Warren County Emergency Management, said all three were hospitalized.

"Apparently, the trailer rolled twice and fell apart," Duvall said.

Charles Foster, who lives nearby, said he helped pull one of the children from the wreckage.

"I ran up there and helped. There was a little girl, 6 or 7 years old, standing by the wall that had crumbled and had the mother and little boy pinned under the trailer," Foster said. "The little girl looked OK."

Damage in Tennessee
In Tennessee's Lawrence County, roofs were torn off, trees toppled and debris littering yards. Two people were injured and about 20 homes were damaged, state officials said.

Some power lines were knocked down in northern Giles County, a dozen homes were damaged and three people were injured when trees fell on an ambulance, emergency management officials said.

The damaging storms come in the same week as heavy rains that flooded parts of West and Tennessee and two months after tornadoes killed 33 people in the state.

In northern Wisconsin, schools closed, thousands lost power because of trees falling on power lines and snow plows were back at work Friday as blizzard-like conditions hit.

Keith Kesler, Douglas County's emergency management coordinator, said as much as 9 inches of snow had fallen near Superior, with wind gusting to 62 mph.

"Tree limbs are flying through the air," he said. "It is a little unusual for April to get hit like this. Winter is winter. It is getting awfully long this year."

April snow
The record for April snowfall in the area near Duluth, Minn., occurred a year ago, when 12.1 inches fell April 7.

"Springtime in Superior, I guess," said Steve Erickson, 59, whose home lost power for about two hours Friday. "I gassed up my snowblower in anticipation but the stuff is so heavy and slushy that I don't know if it is going to blow it or not."

Video   Slammed April 10: An apparent tornado slammed into the town of Breckenridge, Texas. KXAS-TV's Grant Stinchfield reports. NBC News Channel

Recent heavy rains have swelled the Mississippi River so much that workers in Louisiana began opening a major spillway Friday to divert river water through Lake Pontchartrain and into the Gulf of Mexico.

The opening of the Bonnet Carre spillway, about 30 miles above New Orleans, was being done to guard communities against flooding, ease pressure on levees and make for safer navigation conditions for ships and barges.

In Missouri, where heavy rain fell Wednesday and Thursday, authorities reported the death of a 14-year-old boy in Shannon County. The boy, Kenneth Davidson, was swept away by rushing water Thursday while trying to cross a normally shallow arm of Loggers Lake, officials said. Emergency crews later found his body tangled in roots.

In Texas, at least 100 homes and buildings were damaged in West Texas and the Dallas-Fort Worth area on Thursday. The arm of a gas field worker who was inside a trailer south of Fort Worth when a possible tornado struck was severed up to the elbow.

Straight-line winds carved out a destructive path across the city of Hurst, just east of Fort Worth. Downed trees littered residential neighborhoods, blocking streets, snapping utility poles and snagging power lines. Some large tree trucks had snapped just a foot or two above ground level.

Evelyn Wooten, 69, said she spent early Thursday sitting alone in a front-hall closet wearing a motorcycle helmet and waiting out the storm in the sturdiest room in her house.

“I wasn’t going to be hit in the head by a two-by-four,” Wooten said, supervising the cleanup of her Hurst home, which was punctured by a falling tree. “I just made me a cozy little den in there.”

250,000 without power
At one point, Oncor had about 250,000 customers without power in northern Texas. Some could remain without power until Saturday.

Tom Pennington / Associated Press Johnson County residents survey the damage after a storm ripped through their homes near Egan, Texas, on Thursday. Severe weather is being blamed for three deaths.

Straight-line winds damaged some 200 homes and businesses in Muldrow, in Sequoyah County in far eastern Oklahoma, and the Red Cross was working to set up a temporary shelter at a local church, authorities said.

In nearby Arkoma, emergency management officials said nearly every home and business sustained broken windows from hail the size of a golf ball or larger.

In northwest Oklahoma City, engineers were assessing the condition of a detention pond dam near Lake Hefner that appeared to be in danger of breaking. Crews worked to install pumps to lower the water level, Laura Story, an assistant city engineer, told The Oklahoman.

Tornado guide What causes tornadoes? Tips and facts Wind-proofing your property

In Illinois, the National Weather Service reported several possible tornadoes Thursday evening, including a reported touchdown near Lima in west-central Illinois, but no major damage was reported.

In Arkansas, dozens of roads flooded across the state and schools in Norfork, Marshall and Viola closed due to high water.

A tornado touched down in Grant County, destroying a barn and killing four cows and a donkey.

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