“So far have they [the United States] strayed into wickedness in those [future] times that their destruction has been sealed by my [father]. Their great cities will burn, their crops and cattle will suffer disease and death, their children will perish from diseases never seen upon this Earth, and I reveal to you the greatest [mystery] of all as I have been allowed to see that their [the United States] destruction will come about through the vengeful hands of one of our very own sons.” - Johanwa Owalo, Kenyan Prophet and the founder of Kenya’s Nomiya Luo Church, 1912.
From east to west coast, the devastating power of the tornadoes hitting the United States of America was felt last night as twisters touched down as far west as northern California. 81 tornadoes have been reported in 24 hours as forecasters say that large parts of the country still remain at a "severe risk," while communities in neighboring states picked up the pieces after tornadoes cut a path of destruction a day earlier.
The National Weather Service reported several tornadoes touching down in rural Butte and Glenn counties on Wednesday evening, as severe continued to rumble through the country. A total of 81 tornadoes were reported in 24 hours from Texas through to New York state as the death toll for this year reached 500 for the first time in 50 years. But many people counted themselves lucky on Wednesday night after the powerful storms swept through the country for the third time in four days but without claiming any lives. Heavy rain, hail and lightning pounded Memphis just two weeks after floods devastated the city. A tornado warning sounded, but there were no confirmed reports of tornadoes touching down.
Dozens of people were injured thought, mobile homes were flipped and roofs were torn off houses when tornadoes and thunderstorms hit Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and other states. On Thursday, forecasters withdrew a slew of tornado watches in the South and said the heavy weather that pounded the Midwest in recent days had finally receded. Nevertheless, violent storms could not be ruled out elsewhere. In southern Indiana, residents used flashlights to check on their homes, barns and neighbours near Bloomington after powerful winds overturned two mobile homes. Crews worked overnight to clear uprooted trees and downed power lines after a tornado touched down in a mostly rural area about 25 miles south, near Bedford.
NOAA's Map of Multi-Vortex Tornadoes in U.S.
Authorities began assessing the storm damage after daybreak, tallying up the number of homes damaged and destroyed. More than a dozen people were injured, including several children, but those living in the most affected areas said they were relieved no one was killed. Brad Taylor, who lives in a mobile home park near Bloomington where one trailer was toppled and another was destroyed, said he, his wife and their two children rode out the storm by hiding in a closet. The trailer lost some siding and a window was blown out, but it was still standing. ‘I'm just thankful everybody's alive,’ Mr Taylor said.
NOAA's SPC Activity Chart.
A neighbour, 19-year-old Brandon Arthur, said he has never been so scared. ‘All I know is the power went out, the trailer started shaking and I looked out the window and there was green lightning,’ said Mr Arthur, whose trailer survived except for its wooden deck. Marie Mason, who owns the trailer park with her ex-husband, Sam Mason, looked bewildered as she sifted through the debris of his trailer for a cell phone. She wanted to call him in the Philippines to tell him what happened. Moments later, neighbours found his dog dead in a nearby field, and she knelt over the animal and cried. Her son was bruised and bloodied by the storm, but was treated at a hospital and would be all right, she said. ‘The good thing is everybody's here to talk about it,’ Marie Mason said. ‘I've got a lot to be grateful for. Things can be replaced. People can't.’Wednesday's storms followed a deadly outbreak of violent weather a day earlier in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas that killed at least 15 people.
- Daily Mail.
WATCH: Search continues for people missing during the tornado strikes.
WATCH: Officials in Missouri have released a list of 232 names of people unaccounted for.
