After deadly Oklahoma tornado, forecasters warn Midwest residents to brace for storms
CTV
Several Midwest states were bracing for dangerous storms Tuesday as tornadoes spun through parts of Michigan, one day after a powerful twister roared through a small Oklahoma town, killing at least one person and destroying dozens of homes.
Several Midwest states were bracing for dangerous storms Tuesday as tornadoes spun through parts of Michigan, one day after a powerful twister roared through a small Oklahoma town, killing at least one person and destroying dozens of homes.
The National Weather Service said some tornadoes were spotted in southwestern Michigan on Tuesday, including two that blitzed parts of Portage, a city just south of Kalamazoo. The sheriff's office there said multiple trees and power lines were down in the area, while photos posted on Facebook showed severe roof damage at a FedEx building and debris resting on delivery vehicles. It wasn't immediately known if there were injuries.
A tornado watch was also issued Tuesday afternoon for portions of northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio with the possibility of tornadoes, large hail and wind gusts of up to 70 miles per hour.
Tuesday's storms were not expected to pose as intense a threat as those Monday had, said Roger Edwards, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center.
The Storm Prediction Center cited 17 reports of tornadoes from Monday evening through early Tuesday in the central part of the United States. Eight of the twisters were in Oklahoma, two each in Kansas, South Dakota and Iowa, and one each in Nebraska, Missouri and Tennessee. The powerful storms come amid a wild swing in severe weather across the globe that includes some of the worst-ever flooding in Brazil and a brutal Asian heat wave.
A deadly tornado that touched down Monday night in Oklahoma ripped through the 1,000-person town of Barnsdall, about a 40-minute drive north of Tulsa. The National Weather Service there had warned Monday evening that "a large and life-threatening tornado" was headed toward Barnsdall.
It was the second tornado to hit the town in five weeks -- a twister on April 1 with maximum wind speeds of 90 to 100 m.p.h. (145 to 161 km/h) damaged homes and blew down trees and power poles in Barnsdall.
