Tornados touch down in Midwest cities leaves over 21 dead. Images courtesy of Facebook

In Missouri, Tornados and accompanying straight line winds killed five in St. Louis County, and two others in Scott County, according to officials.
At a news conference held Friday night, Mayor Cara Spencer announced that the number of fatalities has risen from four to five in the city. She’d said earlier that two of the dead were killed in North City, where a vortex was spotted.
St. Louis Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson estimated that the severe weather hit about 20 square blocks of the city. Over 5,000 homes may have been affected by the tornado outbreak.

Mitch McCoy of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department stated that extensive search-and-rescue operations were continue with the help of the Missouri State Highway Patrol and first responders from surrounding counties. “It’s all hands on deck to rescue as many people as we can and save lives,” he told KSDK Newschannel 5 in St. Louis. 

The station reported that a man was rescued from the rubble of a home after an hourslong operation. The residence was most likely smashed by a tornado or the severe weather’s associated potent winds in the area Friday, the station said.”Considering the building collapsed on him, he’s doing great,” a fire official said after the man was pulled out. Apparently, the man had sought shelter inside the home and ended up stuck inside a pantry, KSDK said.Coverage from the region included the remaining structure of the historic Harlem Tap Room, a lounge in the Ville Neighborhood that has stood in the same location for generations — roughly 80 years.

A witness who was in the bar told KSDK that a fellow patron’s warning and the establishment’s flickering lights preceded his move and that of others there to the rear of the building — which he credited with saving many lives.

Spire Energy, a utility serving 1.7 million customers across the region, reported “severe damage” to homes and other personal property. Video of the storm-wrought carnage showed toppled brick walls, downed tree limbs and severed power lines in stricken areas.

The city of Clayton, MO, closed its City Hall as officials there coordinate responses to the severe weather.In Scott County, Sheriff Derick Wheetley posted on social media, saying that two people died in a ‘devastating tornado’ there. “The tornado moved from the eastern part of the county, leaving behind a trail of destruction, with multiple homes completely lost and areas left unrecognizable,” he said.

Saturday, Kentucky had more than 99,000 customers without power during the emergency,  according to PowerOutage.us, a utility tracker. A further 84,000 customers across Missouri were left without electrical service.

The vortexes were products of a fast-moving low pressure system headed east-northeast from its location over parts of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Missouri; the entire region was under a tornado watch until 10 p.m. Cool, winter-like winds clashed with a hot air from the southwest, producing eruptions of thunderstorm activity along with high atmospheric turbulence.Unconfirmed tornadoes, as well as other widespread warnings of severe weather, were reported on Thursday across Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois, according to the National Weather Service and forecasters across various media platforms.

#Tornado #Missouri #Kentucky

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