Tornadoes kill 3 in the Midwest, Plains as storm threat shifts east

CNN

By Meteorologists Briana Waxman, Chris Dolce, and CNN’s Hanna Park

(CNN) — An outbreak of tornadoes killed at least two people and left a path of destruction in Illinois and Indiana on Sunday after a tornado earlier in the day killed a person in Kansas.

Nearly three dozen tornado reports were logged by the Storm Prediction Center in Illinois and Indiana, as supercell thunderstorms roared across the region.

Illinois has been hit by more tornadoes than any other state so far this year. There have been 196 reports of tornadoes through Sunday, including destructive ones just days ago, which is more than three times the state’s annual average, according to the SPC.

Sunday’s tornadoes were part of a more widespread outburst of severe thunderstorms with damaging winds across the Midwest and Plains that knocked out power to tens of thousands.

And the threat isn’t over on Monday. Tornado chances are low, but the overall storm threat will shift east to cover many more people across the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast.

Deadly tornadoes hit Illinois, Kansas

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.

Earlier Sunday, one person was also found dead in Sedgwick County, Kansas, after a manufactured home was blown off its foundation by an EF2 tornado, the county said in a statement and the National Weather Service later confirmed.

Tornadoes also tore through southern Indiana, where several homes were “completely obliterated,” Gibson County Sheriff Bruce Vanoven said Sunday. The storm caused damage across multiple communities in the area before moving east.

No injuries had been reported there as of Sunday evening. Vanoven 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.

The storm tore through a retirement community in neighboring Warrick County, Sheriff Mike Wilder told CNN. Two roofs collapsed at the Park Place Apartments in the town of Newburgh, trapping a woman who had to be rescued by emergency officials, Wilder said. The woman and two others suffered minor injuries but refused treatment at the scene.

Also in Newburgh, a woman visiting her parents at a different apartment complex witnessed debris “flying everywhere” and watched from her car as a tornado ripped through a parking lot and pool.

“It was like, boom … 200 yards from my vehicle, as I sat there with my car in reverse, ready to pull off,” Ka’Lisha Puckett told CNN. She said firefighters knocked on her parents’ door at Bell Pointe Apartments to prepare them to evacuate because of damage to their roof.

Farther west, a nasty line of thunderstorms from the same system raked through western and central Oklahoma after midnight Monday morning with wind gusts topping 100 mph.

“THESE ARE DESTRUCTIVE STORMS FOR THE OKLAHOMA CITY METRO!,” the National Weather Service said in a highest-level severe thunderstorm warning issued for the area.

Multiple power flashes were caught on camera in El Reno, Oklahoma, around 1:30 a.m. as the area came under severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings, CNN affiliate KOCO reported.

Storm threat pushes East on Monday

The same storm system will flare up another round of potentially damaging storms in the East and South on Monday, although the risk of tornadoes is low.

Atlanta, Charlotte, Philadelphia and Washington, DC, are among the major cities in a Level 2 of 5 risk of severe thunderstorms. Damaging wind gusts that could down trees and knock out power in spots are the main threat.

Heavy rain could also trigger flash flooding and slow down travel from the Mid-Atlantic to the Southern Plains. The downpours will stay north of areas ravaged by floods along the Gulf Coast last week.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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CNN’s Amanda Musa and Karina Tsui contributed to this report.