Thunderstorms Batter Several States, Kill Kentucky Couple

A band of powerful thunderstorms, high winds and heavy rains rolled through several states Friday, killing a couple in Kentucky a day after claiming nine lives in other areas.

Severe thunderstorm warnings were posted from eastern Tennessee to southeastern Alabama. Showers also fell from eastern Kansas to waterlogged Michigan, where flood warnings were posted on the Lower Peninsula.

In eastern Kentucky, a couple was killed when a storm toppled a tree onto their car. Larry Lamb, 48, of Evarts, and his wife, Linda, 24, died, but their daughter, Chastity, was in her child-restraint seat and was not injured.

Strong winds surged into Kennesaw, Ga., about 30 miles northwest of Atlanta, overturning five single-engine planes at McCollum Airport and damaging a hangar.

In northern Alabama’s Lawrence County, Leann Kerby of Mount Hope was on the sofa in her mobile home when she saw her porch blow past the window. “Then it took the roof off,” Kerby said.

Even so, she was luckier than a 38-year-old woman near Booneville, Ark., who was killed Thursday when her mobile home was blown off its foundation and then slid down a hill.

Winds averaging as high as 80 mph also blew pieces of a steel bridge onto a highway and ripped boats from their moorings.

Five people were killed Thursday in Texas and three in Oklahoma.

At Huntsville (Ala.) International Airport on Friday, part of the fire station roof slammed into the National Weather Service office about 100 yards away.

Chicago’s 2.7 inches of rain between midnight and 10 a.m. Friday set a record for the date.

In Colorado, where a fast-moving storm dumped up to 16 inches of snow on Thursday, authorities said two weather-related car crashes Thursday and Friday morning killed six people and injured three, one critically.

Flood watches were posted from the southern portions of Wisconsin and Illinois to the northern half of Missouri.