Storms and tornadoes across central U.S. kill dozens and damage homes

LONDON, Ky. — Officials in Kansas and Texas were evaluating damage on Monday after tornadoes touched down overnight, just days after more than two dozen people were killed in storms that swept through parts of the Midwest and South.

Kentucky was hardest hit by last week’s storms. A devastating tornado damaged hundreds of homes, tossed vehicles, left many homeless, and killed at least 19 people, most of them in southeastern Laurel County.

“We have 1,001 things going on. But we’re managing it. And we’re going to get it all cleaned up,” said London Mayor Randall Weddle at the city’s small airport, which was a beehive of cleanup after it took a direct hit from a tornado. Officials were using it as a base to get water, food, diapers and other supplies out to the community.

Meteorologists predicted a fresh “multi-day” mix of dangerous weather across the central U.S. with heavy rain, thunderstorms and potential tornadoes, according to the National Weather Service.

Kentucky cleans up

The Kentucky storms emerged from a weather system Friday that killed seven in Missouri and two in northern Virginia, authorities said. Damage assessments were underway Sunday as Kentucky readied its request for federal disaster assistance, Gov. Andy Beshear said.

In London, city worker Ashley Taylor was back at work Monday loading doughnuts to take to a hospital and dispatch center even though there was a tarp on her roof. She was lucky — the houses across her street were destroyed late Friday night.

She survived the storm with nine other people and three dogs in the crawlspace of a neighbor’s home,

“We prayed like never before — and just thankful for everything God did for us,” Taylor said.

Laurel County Fire Major Leslie Leatherman was one of the dead. His fellow firefighters found his body shielding a woman who was calling for help in a field near a destroyed subdivision. It turned out to be his wife, and officials aren’t sure if he knew who he was protecting in all the darkness and chaos, the fire department said on social media.

18 years later a city in Kansas spared

The city of Greensburg, Kan., said on social media Monday morning that there were power outages but it was safe after the “storm scare.” In 2007, Greensburg was slammed by an EF5 tornado that was more than 1.5 miles wide and packed winds up to 205 mph, leveling more than 90% of the town of 1,400 and killing 12.

A powerful tornado tore through Reno County, Kan., late Sunday, moving through rural areas and into the small community of Plevna, county Emergency Management officials said in a news release on Monday. The tornado damaged several homes, trees and utility poles, then continued to cause damage for about five miles north and east of the city. Damage was extensive, but no injuries or deaths were reported, officials said.

A National Weather Service team planned to head out Monday to survey Plevna tornado damage, said Andy Kleinsasser, a meteorologist with the service’s office in Wichita. There were no known injuries or fatalities, Kleinsasser said. The tornado started in Stafford County and cut a path that was at least 20 miles long through Reno County, he said.

In the western part of Kansas, Interstate 70 was reduced to one lane near Grinnell, a town of 260 people, because of tornado damage and downed power lines.

Texas and Missouri hit

In St. Louis, Mayor Cara Spencer said five people died, 38 were injured and more than 5,000 homes were affected on Friday. About 130 miles south, a tornado in Scott County killed two people, injured several others and destroyed several homes, Sheriff Derick Wheetley wrote on social media.

In Texas, possible tornadoes caused significant damage in Mingus and Gordon, about 70 miles west of Fort Worth. Schools were damaged and classes canceled the rest of the week. No injuries or deaths were reported.

More mid-South tornadoes and fewer meteorologists

About 1,200 tornadoes strike the U.S. annually, and they have been reported in all 50 states. Researchers found in 2018 that deadly tornadoes were occurring less frequently in the traditional “Tornado Alley” of Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas and more frequently in parts of the more densely populated and tree-filled mid-South.

The Trump administration has massively cut staffing of National Weather Service offices, and outside experts worry about how thatwould affect warnings in disasters such as tornadoes.

The office in Jackson, Ky., which was responsible for the area around London, had a March vacancy rate of 25%; the Louisville, Ky., weather service staff was down 29%; and the St. Louis office was down 16%, according to calculations by weather service employees obtained by the Associated Press. The Louisville office also was without a permanent boss — the meteorologist in charge — as of March, according to the staffing data.

Experts said any vacancy rate above 20% is a critical problem.

Schreiner writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, S.C.; Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kan.; Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Md.; and Jamie Stengle in Dallas contributed to this report.