3 dead in storm packing ice, snow, tornadoes

SHUQUALAK, Miss. -- A strong storm that socked the Midwest with ice and heavy, wet snow made its way east, raking the South with tornadoes Thursday, with three deaths blamed on the rough weather, and thousands of people without power.

Mississippi Emergency Management Agency spokesman Greg Flynn on Thursday said one person died and several were injured after a reported tornado struck Kemper County in the far-eastern part of the state.

Tabatha Lott, a dispatcher in Noxubee County, said there were "numerous reports of injuries" in the town of Shuqualak, though it wasn't immediately clear how many. Flynn also said there are reports of damaged buildings and many power outages.

A tornado bears down on Shuqualak, Miss. on Thursday. One person was killed and several were injured when a tornado struck Kemper County in eastern Mississippi. (Derek Cody ~ Associated Press)

The system first swept across the nation's midsection Wednesday night and pummeled portions of Missouri, where the National Weather Service on Thursday said an EF-2 tornado appears to have damaged dozens of homes in the St. Louis suburb of Hazelwood. That category of tornado generally packs winds of 113 to 157 mph.

In Shuqualak, Kathy Coleman, 57, said she was outside her home signing for a delivery of her dialysis medication when the deliveryman hustled her back in to the house. Coleman said she, the deliveryman and her housekeeper huddled in the bathroom as the storm hit.

"All I could hear was trees breaking and falling and glass. He started praying and I started praying. Thank God he was here," she said.

In Missouri and Illinois, crews with the weather service still were assessing whether tornadoes were to blame for other damage, meteorologist Mark Fuchs said. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency shortly after the storm swept through the eastern part of Missouri, bringing hail, up to 2 1/2 inches of rain and strong winds.

Utility workers scrambled to restore power to Missouri homes and businesses. One utility worker for Ameren Missouri was electrocuted while doing electrical work to repair damage, the company said. The company says he was taken to an area hospital but did not survive.

In the upper Midwest, thousands of homes and businesses lost power because of heavy wet snow, ice and wind in the past couple of days, while rain and snow raised flooding concerns in various areas of the Midwest. A suspected tornado caused damage in Arkansas.

Madison County, Ill., Associate Judge David Grounds looks at one of two large trees that fell and damaged his home and two vehicles in Alton, Ill. Grounds escaped via the back door to find the damage and arcing power lines in his front yard. (John Badman ~ The Telegraph)

A third death was reported in the Nebraska Pandhandle, where a woman perished Tuesday when she tried to trudge through blinding snow from her disabled car to her house a mile away.

On Wednesday, seven members of the Sullivan, Mo., municipal airport board were gathered at the airport Wednesday night for a meeting. A member noticed what looked like funnel clouds over the 7,000-resident town about 65 miles southwest of St. Louis. A windblown pickup truck then scooted by -- without a driver. The gust was clocked at 101 mph.

In Alton, Ill., Dave Grounds was watching TV when he heard the rain intensify, followed by winds that he said had "incredible resonance."

"That's when the house started shaking violently, like it was grabbed by both sides," Grounds said. "I thought it was an earthquake, and that's when things started collapsing."

Two large trees toppled onto his house of 43 years, caving in his bedroom and crushing two vehicles.

"Electricity lines came down and started sparking like it was the Fourth of July, and the whole house filled with smoke," Grounds said.

At least eight homes were damaged in the St. Louis neighborhood known as the Hill. Mobile homes were blown over in parts of Franklin and Washington counties, not far from St. Louis.

Fuchs said the storm, which affected numerous states, was the result of a clash of warm and cold air -- typical for spring.

A tornado with winds of 111-135 mph hit Botkinburg in north-central Arkansas on Wednesday and injured four people, National Weather Service forecasters said Thursday. It was rated as an EF-2 storm on a scale measuring tornado severity. EF-5 is the highest. Wednesday's storm was 400 yards wide at its peak

In South Dakota, snow and ice shut down several roads, including Interstate 90 for a time.

In Minnesota, the snowstorm that made travel difficult Thursday across parts of Minnesota heaped more headaches on the southwest corner of the state, where communities are still struggling to restore power following an ice storm earlier in the week. Officials said it may be early next week before electricity is restored in the southwest.