Storms wash away 6 people in Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee
Official: 'It's a very difficult search'
Friday, May 26, 2006; Posted: 1:50 p.m. EDT (17:50 GMT)
People survey damage Thursday in Otwell, Indiana, after a storm ripped through the area.
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Manage Alerts | What Is This? INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (AP) -- Storms with harsh rain, hail and winds rushed across a region from Tennessee to Michigan, and rising waters swept away six people. A 15-year-old was found dead in Tennessee Friday and five others remained missing.
Rescuers in Indiana were looking for a 4-year-old boy, his father and grandfather, whose pickup was carried off Thursday night. A hunt also continued in Kentucky for another 4-year-old washed away in a vehicle after two adults managed to get out.
In Tennessee, Clarksville Police Officer Andy Bechtold said rescuers early Friday found the body of one of two 15-year-olds who went missing while swimming in a creek. Two rescue workers were injured, one critically, when their small boat tipped over in the rushing water.
In central Kentucky, a 68-year-old woman was found dead early Friday on the sidewalk in front of her Lexington home. It appeared she was placing her yard waste container by the curb for pickup when she was struck by lightning, the Fayette County coroner's office said.
Almost 200,000 homes and businesses lost power in southwest Ohio and northern Kentucky Thursday night, and a tractor-trailer was blown off an Ohio highway as winds reached 60 mph or more.
On Friday, the storms were moving east through New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland, and hazardous weather advisories warned of severe thunderstorms bringing damaging gusts and hail.
In southern Indiana, state police were using a helicopter to search for the 35- and 55-year-old men and the 4-year-old boy whose pickup was carried away the previous evening after entering a normally dry creek bed near Leopold in the Hoosier National Forest.
The men were returning home after moving a bulldozer to higher ground to protect it from flood waters. A 7-year-old boy who had been with them managed to swim away and was uninjured.
Large hail was reported around the state. In the southern section, more than 8,000 homes and businesses lost power and a tornado touchdown was suspected in Pike County.
About 20 miles south of the Indiana rescue effort, more workers with another helicopter hunted for a 4-year-old child who was inside a vehicle that was swept away by the swollen Sinking Creek near Irvington, Kentucky. Two adults got out of the vehicle safely, officials said.
"It's a very difficult search. The water right now is still rising," county emergency management director Rick Priest said early Friday.
About 187,000 Duke Energy customers in southwest Ohio apnd northern Kentucky without electricity at one point, and service to some Cincinnati-area homes was not expected to be restored until Saturday, spokesman Steve Brash said Friday.
In northwestern Ohio's Sandusky County, the tractor-trailer was blown off the road near Woodville, roofs were blown off a car wash and a storage building, and falling trees damaged three homes in Clyde. Wind also leveled a barn near Sidney, in the state's western section. No injuries were reported.
