Tornado Rips Through Wisconsin Town, Injuring 19

A tornado ripped through houses, a canning plant and a school in this southern Wisconsin community of 1,000 people, injuring 19 and leaving hundreds homeless.

Chain saws buzzed in the soggy summer air Friday as dazed residents salvaged what they could in the wake of the Thursday evening twister that caused $50 million in damage.

Forty-four homes and five businesses were destroyed, and 130 buildings were damaged.

Debris, including millions of empty, unlabeled vegetable cans from The Friday Canning Co., was strewn for 30 miles.

Cattle were killed, barns blown down and roofs torn off.

“The village is shattered,” said The Rev. Thad Rutter, whose parsonage was a pile of plaster and broken boards.

Sue Roberts wept as she sorted soiled clothing, drenched books and broken furniture, stacking what little was left of her newly remodeled home.

She and her pregnant daughter had hid in the basement to ride out the tornado.

“I thought we were dying,” Roberts said. “They say it’s like a freight train. It’s like three freight trains. It’s awful.”

In the tornado’s aftermath, residents walked up and down streets scattered with tree trunks, pieces of glass and sheets of metal.

Standing in front of what used to be his house, Tim Shady said he and his family went to the basement and took refuge under a pool table. Debris shot through the windows and landed around them, he said.

Severe thunderstorms created tornadoes, flash floods and high winds from the Ohio Valley across to the Mid-Atlantic states Friday.

Fifteen Illinois counties were declared disaster areas because of flooding from days of downpours. Residents of Chicago suburbs pumped out homes, while thousands of people farther south waited for swollen rivers to recede and allow them to return to their homes.

In the western Chicago suburb of Naperville, about 300 homes were flooded and 200 vehicles submerged. Damage there was estimated at $1.7 million.

Flood warnings remained in effect in Indiana along the St. Mary’s River, where flash floods had washed into basements around Fort Wayne.

Rivers were expected to crest overnight at least 6 feet above flood stage despite the tapering off of rainfall.

Flash floods washed away part of an earthen dam in Pennsylvania’s Jefferson County and tornadoes severely damaged three houses, a mobile home and a barn.

Powerful thunderstorms soaked western and central Maryland and northern West Virginia, downing power lines and ripping off roofs. About 30 homes were damaged in two Maryland counties by what is believed to have been a tornado.