Updated: 9:00 a.m. ET March 13, 2006
LAWRENCE, Kan. - Tornadoes swept through portions of the Midwest, killing at least nine people in Missouri, blowing roofs off homes in Illinois and Arkansas, and damaging about 60 percent of the buildings on the University of Kansas campus.
Violent storms continued early Monday in Springfield, Ill., where a tornado also struck Sunday night, taking the roof off of a Wal-Mart. Mayor Tim Davlin said he expected “every square inch of Springfield” will have suffered some effect from the storms.
The storms forced the temporary closing of most major roads into the city. One man was reported missing after his home was destroyed; 19 others were treated at local hospitals for tornado-related injuries, authorities said.
aThe deaths included a woman killed Sunday as she tried to seek refuge from a tornado in her mobile home south of Sedalia.
Bobby Ritcheson said he watched as his neighbor was killed.
“The trailer came down right on top of her,” said Ritcheson, who talked to The Associated Press at a Sedalia hospital where he had taken his pregnant wife out of concern she might be going into labor.
Extent of damage unknown
Tornado sirens sounded at least three times in Sedalia on Sunday as one storm after another rolled through the city.
The severe weather followed a powerful storm that ripped through southern Missouri and southern Illinois late Saturday, killing a married couple whose car was blown off the road and destroying homes along a path of more than 20 miles south of St. Louis, officials said.
John Gagan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Springfield, Mo., said there would be no way of knowing the scope of the damage until later Monday.
“We do not know the extent of this, since it’s ongoing and fresh,” he said. “Reports are coming in as we speak, but we won’t know how bad it is until the light of day.”
In Kansas, Provost David Shulenberger said classes were canceled Monday at the University of Kansas because of safety concerns about debris falling from rooftops. The Lawrence campus was littered with trees, roof tiles and window glass.
Two trees fell through Rhonda Burns’ trailer in the town early Sunday.
“If the wind had shifted that tree just a few inches, I wouldn’t be talking to you,” she said.
The storm was the first of several that passed through eastern Kansas and across most of Missouri on Sunday. High winds lifted a cargo container off the airfield at Kansas City International Airport and blew it into several vehicles. Hail — some the size of baseballs — was reported in several northwest Missouri counties.
'The house is gone'
Tornadoes also touched down Sunday in Oklahoma and Arkansas.
In northeastern Oklahoma, a tornado destroyed 25 to 50 homes when it ripped through rural Delaware County near the town of Oaks, said Mike Miller, spokesman for the Cherokee Nation.
At least 12 people were transported to a hospital, although none appeared to suffer life-threatening injuries, Miller said.
Meanwhile a tornado that tore through northwestern Arkansas late Sunday heavily damaged several dozen homes.
Greg Kospar, 41, of Bentonville, Ark., said he was awakened by his wife shortly before the storm hit.
“It was over before you knew it,” Kospar said. “The house is gone. It sucks, it sucks big time.”
