Huge cleanup task follows tornadoes
At least five killed in series of twisters
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Emergency responders searched through splintered wreckage Monday after a line of tornadoes battered several small communities in Texas and Arkansas, killing at least five people, including a young couple who died trying to shield their daughter from the storm.
The couple, both in their late 20s, died when a twister hit their mobile home late Sunday in the Arkansas town of Nashville. Michael and Melissa Mooneyhan were trying to protect their daughter when the parents’ trailer flipped over and “exploded,” Howard County Coroner John Gray said.
“I had wondered if they were in an enclosed space like a hallway or a bathroom just sheltering the little girl when it hit,” Gray said. “It’s a miracle that little girl survived.”
The girl, who is about 18 months old, was taken to the hospital and later released to relatives.
National Weather Service investigators confirmed a tornado with a preliminary EF2 rating and winds estimated at 125 mph touched down in Nashville, meteorologist Travis Washington said.
In neighboring Texas, a tornado pummeled the small city of Van, damaging or destroying 50 to 100 homes and the local schools, according to Chuck Allen, fire marshal and emergency management coordinator for Van Zandt County.
Authorities confirmed two deaths.
For much of the day, eight people were still unaccounted for in Van, population 2,600, about 70 miles southeast of Dallas. But by late Monday night, Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Jean Dark said everyone on the missing list had been accounted for.
Officials confirmed that the tornado was an EF3, with winds from 135 mph to 140 mph, Allen said.
The storm system was expected to slowly move east. Thunderstorms were forecast from Texas to the Great Lakes region.
Farther north, in Lake City, Iowa, a suspected tornado tore the roof from a high school as about 150 students, family and faculty attended an awards ceremony inside Sunday night.
Dave Birks, girls’ basketball coach at South Central Calhoun High School, said people were able to flee to the basement and locker room area about two minutes before the twister arrived.