Tornadoes And Hail Slam Midwest

Posted by IV on April 14, 2012 // Leave Your Comment

( 4UMF NEWS ) Tornadoes And Hail Slam Midwest:

Baseball-sized hail shattered windows and tore the siding off homes in northeast Nebraska and at least three possible tornadoes hit central Oklahoma on Saturday in what forecasters warned could be a day of “life-threatening” storms in the nation’s midsection. No serious injuries from Saturday were immediately reported.

Bill Bunting, chief of operations for the Storm Prediction Center, said that severe storms have moved into western central Kansas and into central Nebraska.

“What is now under way is potentially a very serious situation,” Bunting said. Officials warned that a large area covering parts of Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas were at risk.

The last time the National Weather Service issued such a high-risk warning was last April, Bunting said.

Nebraska canceled its spring scrimmage football game as heavy rain, hail and lightning moved through the area an hour and a half before kickoff, The Associated Press reported. Records show the spring game has been played every year since at least 1950. In northeast Nebraska, baseball-sized hail rained down, Bunting said.

He advised the nearly 5 million residents who live in the high-risk area to listen to their NOAA weather radio, a nationwide network of radio stations that broadcast from the National Weather Service.

He expects fast-moving tornadoes to touch down after dark, a dangerous time as people may not be able to see the warning signs. The storm threat continues Sunday, he said, as storms move east through Texas, Arkansas and into the Great Lakes region and Wisconsin.

Local officials should notify residents via outdoor sirens, phone calls and social media, Bunting said.

Tornado sirens already sounded across Oklahoma City hours before dawn on Saturday. Department of Emergency Management official Michelann Ooten said one of the possible tornadoes was spotted near Piedmont, a small town near Oklahoma City where a twister killed several people last May.

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