Tornadoes fatal in Missouri, Arkansas

CHESAPEAKE, Mo. -- Residents in Missouri and Arkansas sifted through debris Wednesday and counted their blessings after deadly tornadoes swept through the states, killing three people and injuring more than 30.

"My first thought was 'Thank God, I'm alive,'" said Lue Stelling, holding a yellow plastic grocery bag with a few socks, T-shirts and undergarments she retrieved from her damaged mobile home in Lawrence County, Mo. "I may not have nothing, but we got out alive and that's all that matters."

Thunderstorms rolled through Lawrence and Barton counties west of Springfield, Mo., late Tuesday and early Wednesday, spawning tornadoes that killed two people and injured at least 20 others.

In central Arkansas, A tornado destroyed a home south of Enola on Wednesday, killing a woman. At least 13 others were injured, one of them critically, authorities said.

"It took down trees and twisted them up. It also took up a mobile home," said Charles Parson, the fire chief in nearby Holland.

In Lawrence County, Stelling's mobile home was among the first of about a dozen to be hit at the Lucky Lady mobile home park. She said she opened the door and saw the storm, grabbed her daughter and threw herself into a ditch.

"At first, it sounded like a train. Then, it sounded like a bunch of blades cutting things up," Stelling said. "I could see the dirt and debris twirling."

Nearby in Chesapeake, 47-year-old Marjorie Hawkins was killed and her husband, Larry, was blown out of a window into a field by the storm, said Lawrence County Sheriff Doug Seneker.

Larry Hawkins was hospitalized with internal injuries, scrapes and bruises but was listed in good condition. A friend of his, Wyatt Zornes, said Hawkins remembered huddling with his wife as the storm approached.

"They told each other that they loved each other, and then the house fell apart and he was sucked up into the air," Zornes said.

In Barton County, 32-year-old Debra Pennell was killed and five people were injured when a tornado touched down south of Kenoma, said according to Sheriff William Griffitt. At least two homes, one mobile home and some outbuildings were destroyed.

Drew Albert, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Springfield, said the storm system produced three tornadoes, one each near Chesapeake, Kenoma and Humansville. Investigators spent Wednesday trying to determine the storm's path and strength, he said.

Additional tornado watches were posted Wednesday as the storm system moved out of the central Midwest. Albert said although tornadoes are uncommon in December, they can occur year-round when cold air collides with warm, moist air moving north from the Gulf of Mexico.