KANSAS CITY (AP) — The Latest on severe weather in the Midwest (all times local):
9:30 a.m.
Officials say three people in Douglas County, west of Kansas City, Kansas, were seriously injured by a strong tornado that struck near the college town of Lawrence.
The tornado touched down Tuesday night in a neighborhood south of Lawrence, which is home to the University of Kansas. More than a dozen homes were severely damaged, but no one was killed.
The Douglas County Emergency Management agency said Wednesday on Facebook that 15 people were injured by the storm, including the three with serious injuries. It warned people to stay away from storm-damaged areas.
The tornado was part of another strong round of severe and damaging storms that have battered the central U.S. Several twisters were reported in Iowa and Missouri, which also got heavy rain that caused flash flooding and led to water rescues.
Debris picked up on the airfield that caused our Operations staff to close the airport because Foreign Object Damage to aircraft can cause catastrophe. Pots, foam, wall panels, plant ID tags over millions of square feet. Presumed from tornado damage 47 miles away in Linwood, KS. pic.twitter.com/oOhYTs7F6H
— Kansas City International Airport (@KCIAirport) May 29, 2019
8:50 a.m.
Kansas City International Airport is open again after a harrowing night of storms that left debris over the runway, including debris apparently from a tornado-ravaged town nearly 50 miles away.
A tornado warning Tuesday night forced officials to move people from the terminal to a tunnel leading to the parking garage, where they stayed for about an hour.
But flights were delayed for several hours because of debris strewn about the airfield. Airport spokesman Joe McBride says debris that included pots, plants and wall panels was apparently blown to Kansas City from a tornado that struck Linwood, Kansas, 47 miles to the southwest.
The airport’s Twitter account described it as “Thousands of pieces over millions of square feet.”
The airport reopened around 12:15 a.m.
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8:30 a.m.
Another round of severe storms is causing more flood problems in the central U.S.
A round of storms Tuesday night and Wednesday morning resulted in several damaging tornadoes in Kansas. The storm moved into Missouri and dumped massive amounts of rain in the northern part of the state.
Several water rescues were reported in northern Missouri. In sparsely populated Putnam County, officials urged everyone to stay off roads because flooding was rampant after the county got 2 inches of rain in 20 minutes Tuesday night.
Hannibal, Missouri, officials were just beginning to assess damage Wednesday, hours after torrential rain proved too much for the storm sewers, causing a break that resulted in water damage to buildings in the historic downtown area.
The rain is expected to cause yet another spike in river levels. The Mississippi River already is approaching all-time records at several Missouri and Illinois communities.
4a.m.
A least a dozen homes have been destroyed or damaged in Linwood, Kansas, about 30 miles west of Kansas City.
48-year-old Mark Duffin learned from his wife and a television report that the large tornado that hit the Kansas City outskirts Tuesday evening was headed toward his home.
The next thing he knew, the walls of his house were coming down.
Duffin told the Star he grabbed a mattress, followed his 13-year-old to the basement and protected the two of them with the mattress as the home crashed down around them.
He says: “I’m just glad I found my two dogs alive,” He added: “Wife’s alive, family’s alive, I’m alive. So, that’s it.”
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9:40 p.m.
The Kansas town of Bonner Springs appears to have sustained the most damage from a storm that swept through Wyandotte County on the western edge of the Kansas City metropolitan area.
Earlier in the evening, the National Weather Service said that a large and dangerous tornado was on the ground in Wyandotte County and headed toward an area known as the Legends shopping district.
But Birch says they had no reports of damage from the Legends shopping district or the area immediately around the Hollywood Casino. He does not rule out the possibility of some minor damage but says “the brunt” of the damage in the county was in nearby Bonner Springs.
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9 p.m.
The Kansas City International Airport has temporarily suspended flights and moved people from the terminals to parking garage tunnels for shelter because of storms passing through the area including tornadoes.
Passengers were in parking garages for about an hour before being allowed to return to the terminals.
But the storm left so much debris on the airfield that flights remained delayed, the airport’s Twitter account said. It wasn’t immediately clear when flights would resume. Phone and email messages left with airport spokesman Joe McBride were not immediately returned.
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8:50 p.m.
At least 11 injuries have been reported in Douglas County, Kansas, after the county west of Kansas City was hit with a large destructive tornado.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports that Douglas County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Jenn Hethcoat said six people had been taken to the Lawrence hospital with injuries suffered during the storm, including one with serious injuries, and five more people were headed to the hospital.
Police said most of the damage in the county appeared to be outside the Lawrence city limits, but there were damaged trees, power lines and other debris on the southeastern edge of the city, and some roads were impassable.
The sheriff’s office said that “several houses throughout the county” had sustained damage.
The newspaper said the tornado was confirmed near Lone Star Lake, southwest of Lawrence, around 6:10 p.m., and moved to the north and east, according to social media posts from the Lawrence Police Department.
7:40 p.m.
A tornado has damaged homes in a tiny town in eastern Kansas.
A twister described by the National Weather Service as large and potentially dangerous touched down just before 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the tiny town of Pleasant Grove, a township of about 100 people 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Kansas City, Missouri.
There were no immediate reports of injuries but some homes suffered significant damage.
The tornado was part of another dangerous wave of storms crossing the Plains and Midwest. Kansas City and its suburbs were under a tornado warning Tuesday evening.
Heavy rain was falling on already-saturated soil, creating renewed concerns about flooding, including flash flooding.
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KANSAS CITY (AP) — A vicious storm tore through the Kansas City area, spawning tornadoes that downed trees and power lines, damaged homes and injured at least a dozen people in the latest barrage of severe weather that saw tornado warnings as far east as New York City.
Parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey also were under tornado warnings hours after a swarm of tightly packed twisters swept through Indiana and Ohio overnight, smashing homes, blowing out windows and ending the school year early for some students because of damage to buildings. One person was killed and at least 130 were injured.
The storms in Kansas City Tuesday were the 12th straight day that at least eight tornadoes were reported to the National Weather Service.
After several quiet years, the past couple of weeks have seen an explosion of tornado activity with no end to the pattern in sight.
A large and dangerous tornado touched down on the western edge of Kansas City, Kansas, late Tuesday, the National Weather Service office reported. At least a dozen people were admitted to the hospital in Lawrence, 40 miles (64 kilometers) west of downtown Kansas City, Missouri, and home to the University of Kansas, hospital spokesman Janice Early said. Damage also was reported in the towns of Linwood, Bonner Springs and Pleasant Grove in Kansas.
But the Kansas City metropolitan area of about 2.1 million people appeared to have been spared the direct hit that was feared earlier in the evening when the weather service announced a tornado emergency.
Mark Duffin, 48, learned from his wife and a television report that the large tornado was headed toward his home in Linwood, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of Kansas City.
The next thing he knew, the walls of his house were coming down.
Duffin told the Kansas City Star that he grabbed a mattress, followed his 13-year-old to the basement and protected the two of them with the mattress as the home crashed down around them.
“I’m just glad I found my two dogs alive,” he said. “Wife’s alive, family’s alive, I’m alive. So, that’s it.”
The severe weather wasn’t limited to the Midwest. Tornadoes were confirmed in eastern Pennsylvania and the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for parts of New York City and northern New Jersey.
The winds peeled away roofs — leaving homes looking like giant dollhouses — knocked houses off their foundations, toppled trees, brought down power lines and churned up so much debris that it was visible on radar. Highway crews had to use snowplows to clear an Ohio interstate.
Some of the heaviest damage was reported just outside Dayton, Ohio.
“I just got down on all fours and covered my head with my hands,” said Francis Dutmers, who with his wife headed for the basement of their home in Vandalia, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) outside Dayton, when the storm hit with a “very loud roar” Monday night. The winds blew out windows around his house, filled rooms with debris and took down most of his trees.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine declared a state of emergency in three hard-hit counties, allowing the state to suspend normal purchasing procedures and quickly provide supplies like generators and water.
Monday marked the record-tying 11th straight day with at least eight tornadoes in the U.S., said Patrick Marsh, a Storm Prediction Center meteorologist. The last such stretch was in 1980. The weather service website showed at least 27 reports of tornadoes on Tuesday, most in Kansas and Missouri but also in Pennsylvania and Illinois.
Outbreaks of 50 or more tornadoes are not uncommon, having happened 63 times in U.S. history, with three instances of more than 100 twisters, Marsh said. But Monday’s swarm was unusual because it happened over a particularly wide geographic area and came amid an especially active stretch, he said.
As for why it’s happening, Marsh said high pressure over the Southeast and an unusually cold trough over the Rockies are forcing warm, moist air into the central U.S., triggering repeated severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. And neither system is showing signs of moving, he said.
Scientists say climate change is responsible for more intense and more frequent extreme weather such as storms, droughts, floods and fires, but without extensive study they cannot directly link a single weather event to the changing climate.