Yahoo News 14 killed by storms and flooding in US South and Midwest
At least 14 people have been killed by tornadoes or flooding in the United States' South and Midwest by a storm that also dumped a rare late-season blizzard in western Kansas on Sunday.
Tornadoes hit several small towns in East Texas, killing at least four people and hospitalising more than 50. Five people were killed by flooding and winds in Arkansas, including a fire chief who was struck by a vehicle while working during the storm.
Cove Creek/Pearson Fire chief Doug Decker died shortly before 4am on Sunday after being struck by a vehicle while checking water levels on Highway 25 near Quitman, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Little Rock, trooper Liz Chapman said. His death will be included as a storm-related death.
A two-year-old girl in Tennessee died after being struck by a heavy, metal football goal post that was blown over by high winds, The Metro Nashville Police Department posted on its Twitter page on Sunday evening.
Melanie Espinoza Rodriguez was transported to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead, according to a second post from the department.
Middle Tennessee was hit by a strong line of storms that knocked down trees and power lines earlier on Sunday.
Rescuers in northwest Arkansas continued Sunday to look for an 18-month-old girl and a four-year-old boy who were in a vehicle swept off a bridge by floodwaters in Hindsville, the Madison County Sheriff's Office said.
In northwest Arkansas, a 10-year-old girl drowned in Springdale and the body of a woman who disappeared riding an inner tube Saturday was found in a creek in Eureka Springs. Also, a 65-year-old woman in DeWitt in the eastern part of the state was struck and killed in her home by a falling tree, officials said.
In Texas, search teams were going door to door Sunday after the tornadoes the day before flattened homes, uprooted trees and flipped several pickup trucks at a Dodge dealership in Canton, about 50 miles east of Dallas.
"It is heartbreaking and upsetting to say the least," Canton Mayor Lou Ann Everett told reporters at a news conference Sunday morning.
Ernestine Cook, a resident, told WFAA-TV that she made it to a storm shelter just in time.
“It hit so hard, so fast. It just kept moving,” she said. “I've never seen anything like it after 22 years of living here.”
The National Weather Service found evidence of four tornadoes with one twister possibly on the ground for 50 miles (80 km).
The storms rolled through Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Sunday with strong winds causing isolated pockets of damage. In Durant in central Mississippi on person died in the storms. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency didn't give details. Later on Sunday the agency reported the death of a child from Rankin County, 20 miles (32km) east of Jackson, who died from electric shock in flood waters. The Rankin County Sherriff's Department reported that a seven-year-old boy had unplugged an electric golf cart and dropped the cord in water on the ground and was shocked.
Near Clever in southwestern Missouri, a man tried to save his 72-year-old wife from floodwaters that swept away their vehicle on Saturday, but her body was found when the water receded, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said.
A second death from weekend flooding was announced on Sunday by Missouri Gov Eric Greitens but he did not release any details about the victim or the circumstances of the death.
