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Tornadoes, Flooding Wreak Havoc

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By KELLY P. KISSEL, The Associated Press

Published: January 9, 2008

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - A line of thunderstorms fed by warm weather Tuesday continued spinning off tornadoes unusual for January, killing a man in Arkansas and carrying a cow close to a mile.

At least three people died and hundreds evacuated because of flooding in Indiana, where more than 5 inches of rain in some areas pushed rivers and streams over their banks. Two of the victims were young children trapped in a submerged car.

A tornado that hit Appleton, Ark., rolled a mobile home off its concrete -block supports, killing a man and injuring his wife. The trailer appeared to have rolled for 50 yards before smashing into a stand of trees.

"The tornado hit, and it just looked like his house pretty much exploded. It was taken completely off the blocks and just tore to pieces. They were both in the wreckage," said Pope County Sheriff Jay Winters.

The twister hit about 8:40 a.m., damaging or destroying homes, chicken houses and other farm outbuildings. Damage wasn't widespread because there are few homes in the rural area, about 60 miles northwest of Little Rock in the Ozark foothills.

Kirk Killins, his girlfriend and father were heading toward his parents' house and their storm cellar when his truck was stalled against the tornado's winds.

"I had it floored, and it wasn't doing nothing. I looked to my right, and the hay barn and shop just disappeared," Killins said.

"I don't know how we kept from getting killed," he said. "When the truck started spinning and I saw tin flying by, I thought this was it."

Killins said the tornado picked up one of his family's cows. It survived, even though the storm "probably carried her about three-quarters of a mile," he said.

Another tornado was spotted Tuesday afternoon in northwest Tennessee. The Dyer County Sheriff's Department reported no injuries. The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said that although a barn was destroyed and some power lines were down, there was no widespread damage.

The National Weather Service declared tornado watches or warnings Tuesday afternoon in states including Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky. Several tornadoes were confirmed or reported Monday in Missouri, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Illinois, Oklahoma and Missouri, where two people were killed.

In northern Indiana, a sport utility vehicle carrying a woman and her five young children stalled on a flooded road in a rural area near Rochester before floating into deeper water, the Fulton County Sheriff's Department said. Shay Leininger, 5, and Ashley Pruitt, 2, died.

Mentone Fire Chief Mike Yazel said the SUV's roof rack was the only thing visible when the first officer arrived, but the driver, Megihann K. Leininger, was able to get to the surface and put three of her children on the roof: Mariah Leininger, 4, Michael McDaniel, 1, and Canari Trigg, 3 months.

It took several minutes and a front-end loader for crews to rescue the four, but there was nothing they could do for Shay and Ashley, who were trapped underwater.

"The water was too deep, too cold, too fast," Yazel said. The 29-year-old mother "had to sit there on the roof, knowing that would be the worst part of the story," he said.

In Jasper County, Ronnie D. Napier, 56, of Goodland, drowned in Remington when his truck was swept into flooded Carpenter Creek, said Shawn Brown, a conservation officer with the Department of Natural Resources.

Up to 150 people evacuated areas around Remington, where power was cut and water was waist high in places, the county's emergency management director said.

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