New Storms, Winds Pound Tornado-Ravaged Midwest : Weather: At least 13 are killed by twister-force blasts. Indiana takes the worst barrage in 16 years. Six die in one town.
PETERSBURG, Ind. — Midwesterners mourning neighbors killed in a deadly barrage of tornadoes were hit Sunday by a second onslaught of thunderstorms and high winds that raised the weekend weather death toll to 13.
Wind-toppled trees on Sunday killed a woman camper in Wisconsin and a young boy in a town park in Indiana, the state that bore the brunt of the fierce weather that began Saturday night.
Across Indiana, officials reported eight dead and at least 150 people injured Saturday in the state’s worst tornado outbreak since 1974. The storms left 24 cities in 15 counties with significant damage. Officials tracked about 50 tornado touchdowns during a four-hour period.
In Illinois, a tornado Saturday destroyed or damaged scores of houses and killed one woman. Also Saturday, a 10-year-old boy drowned in a storm-swollen river in Milwaukee and an 82-year-old man was killed by a wind-blown tree branch in the northwestern Missouri town of Stewartsville.
Twisters or tornado-force winds downed trees, knocked out power and damaged homes and businesses from Kansas to Michigan and Ohio. In Arkansas, thunderstorms dumped heavy rain, causing flash flooding that closed roads.
Severe thunderstorms and at least one tornado raked central Indiana on Sunday, downing trees and power lines, but no serious damage or injuries were immediately reported.
Clouds of black dust sucked from freshly plowed fields by 40-m.p.h. winds created blackouts on highways in the northern part of the state, causing an 18-car pileup on U.S. 31 outside South Bend. Five people suffered minor injuries, police said.
Elsewhere, extensive damage was reported after a tornado Sunday in Jacksonville, Tex.
Buildings were damaged, trees were uprooted and most of the town was without power, but only three minor injuries were reported.
The most disastrous of the many tornadoes to touch down Saturday ripped through the southwestern Indiana town of Petersburg, killing six and leaving hundreds homeless just two weeks after floods knocked out the town’s supply of fresh water.
Indiana Gov. Evan Bayh toured Petersburg and Bedford and viewed other damage from the air on Sunday.
At least 150 homes and 18 businesses in Petersburg were destroyed and 120 homes and 58 businesses were damaged when the storm ripped a five-mile path through town, said Al Miller, field operations coordinator for the State Emergency Management Agency. At least 57 people were injured there, and 150 were reported hurt statewide.
“The tornado clearly cut right through the middle of town,” Bayh said. “It looked to me like there had been a bombing run made right through the middle of Petersburg.”
The Rev. Jeff Stratton said the townspeople had not lost their sense of humor despite the added hardship.
“I’ve joked with some friends here that I’ve heard from reliable sources that tomorrow it’s frogs and locusts,” he said.
Indiana National Guard troops and state police patrolled Petersburg streets for possible looting. Roadblocks on the edge of town kept the curious away.
In Illinois, Jasper County was hardest hit, with 30 homes destroyed and at least 70 damaged, while Shelby County reported 12 homes demolished and 26 others damaged.
More to Read
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.