Storms sweep parts of the Midwest

A line of thunderstorms and tornadoes tore up homes, knocked down power lines and injured several people as it moved across the Midwest.

The storms pelted towns with golfball-sized hail and damaged property in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska late Thursday, authorities said.

In North Dakota, heavy rain and snowmelt around Fargo produced flooding that washed out roads and threatened homes on both sides of the state line with Minnesota. The Red River was about 5 feet above flood stage in Fargo and Wahpeton, and was expected to rise to nearly 20 feet above flood stage in a few days, the National Weather Service said.

"All you can see is water," highway engineer Tom Richels said Friday, describing a six-mile stretch of highway east of Breckenridge, Minn., just across the Red River from Wahpeton.

"We've still got more and more roads being washed over and culverts that are collapsing," Richels said.

A tornado Thursday night in northwestern Missouri destroyed four homes and a machine shed and injured people, the weather service said.

Tornadoes also touched down at least three times west of Sedalia, in west-central Missouri, said Tim Mosier, director of the Sedalia-Pettis County Emergency Management Agency. The twister injured one man, damaged several homes and buildings and temporarily knocked out power to about 650 customers.

In central Kansas, a tornado hit near Hutchinson, where officials said lightning or downed power lines sparked a series of prairie fires that forced the evacuation of several homes.

One person was injured in a home when a tornado hit the small southeastern Kansas town of Havana, in Montgomery County, said Joy Moser, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Division of Emergency Management. The tornado then traveled northeast and slammed into the community of Le Hunt.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius declared a state of emergency in Montgomery County late Thursday. Her office said at least five homes in the area were destroyed, several trailers were overturned and a man had to be airlifted to a hospital in Joplin, Mo.

The weather service said another person was hurt when a car blew over in Marion County, north of Wichita.

Wind contributed to accidents elsewhere in Kansas and in Nebraska, where two tractor-trailers were blown off Interstate 80 west of Grand Island, said Deb Collins of the Nebraska State Patrol.

A tornado that touched down outside Omaha blew off sections of a church, officials said. About 8,500 Omaha Public Power District customers temporarily lost power, officials said.

In Iowa, tornadoes were reported in the southwest.

North Dakota and Minnesota officials were preparing for more flooding. Dozens of bridges and roads along the state line were already closed by rising waters.

"We've ordered sand, we've ordered pumps to do the pumping that we don't have ourselves," Fargo, N.D., Mayor Bruce Furness said.

In Fargo and Grand Forks to the north, the Red River was forecast to crest at 19 feet above flood stage next week. For many the news evoked memories of 1997, when flooding forced most Grand Forks residents to evacuate and caused heavy damage throughout the Red River Valley.

Fargo officials were setting up an emergency operations center and asking the Army Corps of Engineers to help with a temporary levee downtown. North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven and other officials issued emergency declarations Thursday to help the area prepare for flooding, and Hoeven said the National Guard will be on alert.

Furness said the speed of the snowmelt surprised some people. Fargo's public works director, Dennis Walaker, said the Red River was rising about 3 feet in the city every 24 hours.