13 Die as Weekend Storms Lash Out at Several States

Mobile homes became houseboats in West Virginia on Sunday, a tornado was spawned in Ohio, and lightning storms rattled Wisconsin amid heavy rains that deluged several states, causing at least 13 deaths over the weekend.

About 30 families were forced from a mobile home park in West Virginia, where rising waters caused several homes to come off their moorings, said D.R. Smith, Wood County emergency services director. An infant and a blind man in a wheelchair were missing, and another man died of cardiac arrest, which officials said could be flood-related.

Flash flooding forced hundreds of people from their homes, closed roads and cut power to more than 58,000 people across West Virginia, prompting Gov. Cecil Underwood to declare a state of emergency in 17 counties.

Lightning, raging waterways and fallen power lines wreaked havoc in several states. A Bridgewater, N.H., man died after being sucked into a narrow culvert that he was trying to clear of debris.

In Wisconsin, a cluster of thunderstorms Saturday fueled by winds up to 90 mph tore roofs off homes and toppled trees, causing widespread damage. Heavy rain flooded basements and roads. A state of emergency remained in effect Sunday because of wind, rain and lightning storms.

“It’s amazing we have any trees left to blow down,” said Todd Rieck, a National Weather Service meteorologist in La Crosse, Wis. “Some places just got devastating damage.”

As many as 30 roads were closed Sunday in northeastern New York, where runoff from as much as 8 inches of rain was still flowing down mountainous terrain.

“We’re discovering more damage by the hour,” said Ray Thatcher, emergency management director for New York’s Essex County.

Roads carrying muddy runoff from fierce downpours that started Friday were impassable in upstate New York, and Vermont’s deluged Mad River Valley was littered with uprooted trees tangled with other debris when waters receded.

Ohio Gov. George Voinovich declared 16 counties disaster areas after heavy rains hit the eastern part of the state for the second straight day.

Six people in Ohio were killed in the weekend flooding, and a seventh died when her mobile home was blown from its foundation by a tornado Saturday. Westbound lanes of Interstate 70 in Ohio were shut down between New Concord and Cambridge.

Lightning strikes killed a Baltimore girl, a camper in upstate New York and a Minnesota farmer holding a pitchfork.