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At least 14 dead as Kansas City faces new tornado warning*


EL RENO, Oklahoma (AP) --- A state official says an overnight storm
system that spawned tornadoes in several Midwest states killed a fourth
person in western Arkansas, bringing the total death toll to 14.


Renee Preslar, a spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency
Management, says authorities discovered the fourth victim's body on
Wednesday in the town of Strawberry, in Johnson County. Eight people
died in Oklahoma as part of a tornado outbreak Wednesday, and two people
in Kansas were killed when high winds flung a tree into their van.


Kansas City is currently under a tornado warning issued Wednesday by the
National Weather Service.


The new system, which followed closely behind the one that spawned the
massive twister that struck Joplin, Mo., and killed more than 122
people, moved into the Oklahoma City area Tuesday evening as worried
commuters rushed home from work.


Several tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma City and its suburbs, killing
at least eight people and injuring at least 70 others, authorities said.
Among those killed was a 15-month-old boy, and searchers were looking
for his missing 3-year-old brother.


The storms killed two people in Kansas before moving eastward and
killing three others in Arkansas. The system was centered over Missouri
and Arkansas and Illinois early Wednesday and moving into western
Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi. The National Weather
Service placed much of Illinois and Indiana under a tornado watch, and
said isolated tornadoes were possible throughout Ohio when the storms
moved into the state Wednesday night.


The system moved into western Arkansas late Tuesday night, bringing with
it a tornado that touched down in several small communities over the
span of an hour, flattening or damaging houses and scattering roofing
material and other debris over a wide area before dissipating at about 1
a.m. Wednesday.


Winery owner Eugene Post, 83, said as he watched the tornado advance on
the town from the porch of his home in Denning. He said the lights
flickered before the area was plunged into darkness, leaving him only
able to listen to the twister's deafening approach.


"I didn't see anything," Post said. "I could hear it real loud though."


Brenda Murders and her husband rode out the tornado in their mobile home
in Denning after her daughter called to wake and warn them.


"We jumped up, got as far as the kitchen. There was wind and hail, it
destroyed the trailer."


The trailer was still standing, though the roof and wall panels had been
peeled away.


Her daughter, Teresa Day, said she and her husband rent mobile homes in
Denning. She said all of their renters survived.


"I don't know how, they don't know how. But they did," (survive) Day said.


In neighboring Altus, May Banhart said everything became really quiet
before the hail came.


"All I know is my old man (husband) told me to hit the floor," Banhart
said Wednesday as she sat with her family under the section of her
carport that still had a roof.


The tornado killed one person from Denning and one each from the towns
of Bethlehem and Etna, authorities said. John Lewis, a senior forecaster
at the National Weather Service in Little Rock, said new tornadoes are
expected to develop later Wednesday in northeastern Arkansas,
southeastern Missouri, and the western parts of Kentucky and Ten.


A rural fire station in Franklin County was left without a roof as
emergency workers tended to the wounded. Downed trees and power lines
tossed across roadways also slowed search-and-rescue crews' efforts.


Renee Preslar, a spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency
Management, said the threat of more severe weather could delay efforts
to assess storm damage.


The twisters that struck the Oklahoma City area killed five people in
Canadian County, two in Logan County and one in Grady County, said
Cherokee Ballard, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Medical Examiner's
office. A weather-monitoring site in El Reno recorded 151 mph winds.


A tornado almost completely destroyed two subdivisions in Piedmont, 20
miles northwest of Oklahoma City, throwing vehicles around like toys
tossed from a stroller.


Mayor Valerie Thomerson said searchers were looking for a 3-year-old boy
whose 15-month-old brother was killed and whose mother and another
sibling were seriously injured.


"My husband and I were driving around yesterday and went past a house
and there was a vehicle in the pond in the front yard. The only way I
could tell it was a vehicle was I could see four wheels above the water.
It was a crushed ball," Thomerson said Wednesday.


"We have anything from houses that have shingles blown off, to half the
house missing, to the house being completely wiped out, gone," Thomerson
said.


Some residents said they had been warned about the impending weather for
days and were watching television or listening to the radio so they
would know when to take cover.


"We live in Oklahoma and we don't mess around," Lori Jenkins said. "We
kept an eye on the weather and knew it was getting close."


She took refuge with her husband and two children in a neighbor's storm
shelter in the Oklahoma City suburb of Guthrie. When they emerged, they
discovered their carport had been destroyed and the back of their home
was damaged.


Chris Pyle was stunned as he pulled into the suburban neighborhood near
Piedmont where he lived as a teenager. His parents' home was destroyed,
but the house next door had only a few damaged shingles.


"That's when it started sinking in," he said. "You don't know what to
think. There are lots of memories, going through the trash tonight,
finding old trophies and pictures."


His parents, Fred and Snow Pyle, rode out the storm in a shelter at a
nearby school.


At Chickasha, 25 miles southwest of Oklahoma City, a 26-year-old woman
died when a tornado hit a mobile home park where residents had been
asked to evacuate their trailers, Assistant Police Chief Elip Moore
said. He said a dozen people were injured and that hundreds were
displaced when the storm splintered their homes.


In Kansas, police said two people died when high winds threw a tree into
their van around 6 p.m. near the small town of St. John, about 100 miles
west of Wichita. The highway was shut down because of storm damage.


In Joplin, Mo., late-night tornado sirens sent residents scurrying for
cover, briefly hampering the painstaking search for survivors of
Sunday's twister before brushing past the city without causing serious
problems. Sunday's storm was the nation's eighth-deadliest twister among
records dating to 1840.


The storms also blew through North Texas, but the damage seemed to be
confined to roofs and trees and lawn furniture and play equipment.


"The hail was probably more destructive," said Steve Fano, National
Weather Service meteorologist in Fort Worth.

http://groups.google.com/group/bible-prophecy-news/browse_thread/thread/8f65c5cef1a2c1fb#

Please remember to keep this little 3 year boy in your prayers!

"Several tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma City and its suburbs, killing
at least eight people and injuring at least 70 others, authorities said.
Among those killed was a 15-month-old boy, and searchers were looking
for his missing 3-year-old brother."!

Valerie