Storms Lash Midwest With Hail, Winds

Winds of more than 80 m.p.h. slammed into an Iowa mobile home park Friday, damaging 41 homes, as violent thunderstorms packing heavy rain and hail moved across the upper Midwest.

Storms developed in the northern plains, upper Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes along a warm front that reached from central South Dakota to southern Alabama, followed by a cold front, the National Weather Service said.

Temperatures Friday afternoon soared into the high 90s across Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and parts of southern Nebraska. Temperatures were in the mid-90s from Arkansas to eastern Texas and Louisiana.

Four Feet of Water

The storms unleashed intermittent downpours in western Illinois and eastern Iowa that caused up to four feet of water to accumulate on some Quad Cities-area streets.

Winds were clocked at 81 m.p.h. at the Quad City Airport in Moline, Ill., which also received enough hail to cover the ground. Widespread scattered power outages, street flooding and downed trees and power lines were reported on both sides of the Mississippi River.

The storms also produced golf ball-size hail in Davenport, Iowa, and Steele County, Minn.

One man died from flooding in Iowa, officials said. Edward Schlichte, 55, of Waucoma, drowned after floodwaters caused his car to slide down a boat landing and into the Cedar River near Charles City.

No one was hurt by the winds that tore through the mobile home park in Muscatine, Iowa, authorities said.

Elsewhere Friday, Tropical Storm Bret churned westward over the Atlantic with 45-m.p.h. winds, and forecasters warned that the storm could gain strength over the weekend.