Tornadoes rip through Missouri and Nebraska

MARENGO, Ind. (AP) -- Tornado-laden storms continued battering the Midwest on Sunday, destroying dozens of homes in this town and tearing the roof off an Indianapolis nursing home.

Several people were injured by the weekend's tornadoes, which killed an elderly man in Marengo and three people in Missouri and ripped through parts of Nebraska and Kansas. High wind was blamed for a fourth Missouri death and two in Kansas.

The storms destroyed at least 50 homes in Marengo, a town of 800 people about 35 miles northwest of Louisville, Ky., said Indiana State Police Sgt. Todd Ringle. The vast majority of the remaining homes and businesses were damaged, he said.

Patricia Parker found three mobile homes on top of each other when she arrived home. She did not think the residents were home at the time.

"My stomach's in knots," the 21-year-old said.

A Crawford County dispatcher saw three funnel clouds, one of which touched down, Ringle said. The area was bracing for another storm that was expected to hit later Sunday night.

The man killed in Marengo, whose name was not immediately released, died in his mobile home during the storm, Ringle said. Several other people were hurt, but none of the injuries was considered life-threatening.

After Howard Lincoln, 49, rode out the storm under his Bronco, he found his home still standing but knocked four feet off its foundation. In his front yard, a large piece of metal was wrapped around a tree.

"It's the worst thing I've ever been through. It was loud and noisy, windy. It was unreal," he said. "I feel lucky, totally lucky. When you look up and see that thing on top of you, you don't know what to think."

The National Weather Service in Indianapolis said it saw evidence of a tornado touchdown close to its office on the southwest side of the city. The worst of the storm passed south of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but rain delayed the start of the Indianapolis 500 and forced a nearly two-hour interruption.

About 50 residents were in the Keystone Health Care Center when wind tore off the roof. They were removed from the Indianapolis nursing home, many wrapped in sheets and blankets, and were being examined to determine whether any needed to go to a hospital before being taken to another nursing home.

A tornado reported in Spencer, about 50 miles southwest of Indianapolis, sent trees and power lines crashing as it sent about 30 people scrambling to find cover in a gas station bathroom.

The twister "jumped over our store and touched town on the road in front of us. I was freaking out," Billie Jo Roecker, assistant manager of the Speedway gas station, told The Indianapolis Star.

In the St. Louis suburb of Berkeley, strong winds snapped off part of a tree and dropped it onto a sport utility vehicle, killing the driver, Darren Clark, 39, of Ferguson, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said.

On Saturday night, a tornado hit northwest Missouri near the town of Weatherby, leveling a house and ripping a mobile home from its base.

Two women in the house and a man in the mobile home were killed, but two children a patrolman found tucked underneath the man survived, Daviess County Sheriff Kevin Heldenbrand said.

The children and two others from the women's home were taken to Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, where three were listed in critical condition and one was in serious condition, hospital spokeswoman Jennifer Benz said.

In Kansas, high wind was blamed for two deaths in separate accidents Saturday on Interstate 70 in northwest Kansas, including that of state Sen. Stan Clark, R-Oakley. Clark was killed when his car was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer after the wind blew dust that cut visibility, the Kansas Highway Patrol said.

Sunday's storms knocked out power to more than 130,000 customers in Illinois and the St. Louis area. Flight delays were up to three hours Sunday evening at O'Hare International Airport and two hours at Midway Airport, and roughly 100 O'Hare flights were canceled, the Chicago Department of Aviation said.

Severe weather also swept through Nebraska, including at least two tornadoes in the southern part of the state. Two people jogging in Omaha on Saturday were seriously injured by a lightning strike, authorities said.

The storms knocked out electricity to thousands of customers in Nebraska and Oklahoma, but much of the power was restored by Sunday.

Tornadoes also were reported in Arkansas on Sunday, but there were no reports of injuries or major damage.

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Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth in Weatherby, Mo., and Rick Callahan in Indianapolis contributed to this report.