At least 2 dead after rash of tornadoes tears through the Midwest
By Meteorologist Briana Waxman
(CNN) — A regional tornado outbreak is unfolding across the Midwest Sunday evening. Nearly three dozen tornado reports have been logged by the Storm Prediction Center as a cluster of supercell thunderstorms tracks east toward the Ohio Valley.
This comes on the heels of another round of tornadoes just four days earlier that leveled buildings and caused widespread destruction across the region. The previous week’s storms also turned deadly as repeated bouts of severe weather swept across the central US, killing multiple people across several states.
At least two people were killed Sunday in rural Jefferson County, Illinois, around 90 miles southeast of St. Louis, according to county Sheriff Jeff Bullard.
Both victims died in separate mobile homes that were destroyed about two to three miles apart, Bullard said.
A third home was completely leveled and five other people were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Bullard said.
The storms damaged at least 20 homes in the county, Deputy Emergency Management Coordinator Keith Hertenstein said. Trees and power lines were knocked down, leaving some residents without electricity.
Tornadoes also tore through Gibson County, Indiana, where several homes were “completely obliterated,” Bruce Vanoven, the county’s sheriff said. The storm caused damage across multiple communities in the area before moving east.
No injuries had been reported as of Sunday evening. Van Hoven urged residents to stay home as crews worked the active scene, warning that downed power lines and debris would be harder to see after dark.
Sunday’s storms erupted along frontal boundaries left behind by morning thunderstorms. As heat and humidity returned during the afternoon, the atmosphere rapidly recharged and thunderstorms evolved into rotating supercells capable of producing tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds.
Heavy rain poses an additional threat Sunday night into Monday as a Level 3 of 4 risk of flooding rain is in place for parts of the Central Plains, middle Mississippi Valley and Ohio Valley. Repeated rounds of storms over the past two weeks have left streams running high and made flash flooding easier to trigger in these areas.
The same storm system is expected to push into the mid-Atlantic and Appalachian regions Monday, bringing a Level 2 of 5 risk of severe thunderstorms. The main threat Monday will be damaging wind gusts, but a tornado or two are not out of the question.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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CNN’s Amanda Musa and Hanna Park contributed to this report.
