How severe were the Thunderstorms that hit Carbondale Il on Friday?”
Two people were killed near Poplar Bluff, Mo., when wind knocked a tree onto their sport utility vehicle. In Dallas County, a man in his 70s had a fatal heart attack after he and his wife were sucked from their home by a tornado and thrown into a field 75 to 100 feet away, said county emergency management director Larry Highfill. The wife was taken to a Springfield hospital. Her condition wasn’t immediately known. A mobile home was blown off its foundation in southeast Kansas, killing a 54-year-old woman inside. Wilson County emergency management spokeswoman Cassandra Edson said it appeared the mobile home was “wrapped around a tree.” Wind in the area reached 120 mph, destroying the New Albany United Methodist Church, the town’s post office and at least one home, authorities said. Major damage also was reported to a high school in Cherokee, Kan. Airplanes were flipped over by winds at the El Dorado, Kan., airport, the Wichita Eagle reported on its Web site. In Towanda, a stone silo bea
CARBONDALE, Ill. – Thunderstorms packing 100-mph winds and spawning funnel clouds ransacked Southern Illinois Friday, snapping trees, peeling siding off homes and leaving thousands without power, emergency officials said. A truck driver who had to be extricated from an overturned semitrailer was in serious condition after a “major trauma,” said Rosslynd Rice, a spokeswoman for Southern Illinois Healthcare. About six other patients with minor injuries were being treated at the Memorial Hospital of Carbondale, she said. “It tore the hell out of things,” said Calvin Brown at the Cherry Street Pub in Herrin, a town of about 11,000 residents east of Carbondale. “It was wicked. I haven’t seen that in a long time.” Winds blew out car windows, Brown said. It tore roofing from buildings and separated the fiberglass from the pub’s sign. Power outages forced the cancellation of commencement ceremonies Friday at Southern Illinois University’s Carbondale campus, said university spokesman Rod Siever
