A large tornado tore through southeastern Missouri before dawn on Wednesday, causing widespread destruction and killing at least four people as a broad swath of the Midwest and South braced for further storm s that could spawn additional twisters and hail. A twister in Illinois also caused injuries.
The Missouri tornado touched down around 3:30 a.m. and moved through a rural area of Bollinger County, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of St. Louis, said Sgt. Clark Parrott of the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
Parrott said crews from more than 20 agencies were on the scene and clearing debris in search of any others who might have been killed or injured.
“The damage is pretty widespread. It’s just heartbreaking to see it,” Parrott said.
The patrol posted an overhead photo of the damage that showed uprooted trees and damaged and destroyed homes. Drone footage showed that some had been turned into piles of debris and splinters. One area that appeared to be hit especially hard was a narrow stretch between a road and a stream where emergency crews could be seen peering into the wreckage with flashlights.
Parrott said that crews had to use chainsaws to cutback trees and brush to reach some of the homes.
“It’s going to be a slow process but for now it’s an active search and rescue” Parrott said.
Justin Gibbs, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Paducah, Kentucky, said the tornado remained on the ground for roughly 15 minutes, traveling an estimated 15-20 miles (24-32 kilometers).
A weather service team was headed to Bollinger County to gather details about the tornado, but Gibbs said it’s clear “it was big. It was a significant tornado.”
He noted that tornadoes are especially dangerous when they touch down late at night or early in the morning, as this one did.
“It’s definitely a nightmare from a warning standpoint,” Gibbs said. “It’s bad anytime, but it’s especially bad at 3:30 in the morning.”
Larry Welker, Bollinger County’s public administrator, said the twister traveled along route 34 into Glen Allen, a village of slightly more than 100 people, and that he hasn’t been able to inspect the damage firsthand because law enforcement were restricting access to the area.
“I’m getting reports that it was pretty bad,” he said. He described it as a rural area, where residents mostly farmed, cut timber or worked construction jobs.
“There was several trailers there, and I understand that there is still people missing,” Welker said.
Gov. Mike Parson said he would join emergency personnel on the ground to assess damage and determine what resources are needed.
The storms moving through the Midwest and South on Wednesday threaten some areas still reeling from a deadly bout of bad weather last weekend. The Storm Prediction Center said up to 40 million people in an area that includes major cities including Chicago, Indianapolis, Detroit and Memphis, Tennessee, were at risk from the storms later Wednesday. As of late morning, the the greatest threat appeared to be to an area stretching from lower Michigan into Tennessee and Kentucky.
Fierce storms that started last Friday and continued through the weekend spawned deadly tornadoes in 11 states as the system plodded through Arkansas and into the South, Midwest and Northeast.
Schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, canceled Wednesday classes because the storms were expected to move through the area during the morning rush, KFVS-TV reported.
In central Illinois, authorities said five people were hurt and about 300 homes were without power due to a tornado that struck in Fulton County on Tuesday evening. Chris Helle, who directs the county’s Emergency Services Disaster Agency, said one of the people injured was in critical condition.
Helle said the damage was concentrated near the town of Bryant, about 200 mile (322 kilometers) southwest of Chicago. Fire departments and other first responders were still cataloguing the damage there, but Helle said numerous homes had been destroyed. He credited people for listening to advance warnings and taking shelter.
Officials said another tornado touched down Tuesday morning in the western Illinois community of Colona. Local news reports showed wind damage to some businesses there.
Winds of up to 90 mph (145 kph) and baseball-sized hail also caused damage in the Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois.
The National Weather Service also received reports of semitrailers that had been tipped over by winds in Lee County, about 95 miles (153 km) west of Chicago.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.