Midwest Tornadoes Rip Up Houses and Nursing Home

Tornado-laden storms continued battering the Midwest on Sunday, destroying dozens of homes in this town and tearing the roof off an Indianapolis nursing home.

Several people were injured by the weekend’s tornadoes, which killed an elderly man in Marengo and three people in Missouri, and ripped through parts of Nebraska and Kansas. High wind was blamed for a fourth Missouri death and two in Kansas.

The storms destroyed at least 50 homes in Marengo, a town of 800 people about 35 miles northwest of Louisville, Ky., said Indiana State Police Sgt. Todd Ringle. Most of the remaining homes and businesses were damaged, he said.

A Crawford County dispatcher saw three funnel clouds, one of which touched down, Ringle said. The area was bracing for another storm that was expected to hit later Sunday night.

The man killed in Marengo died in his mobile home during the storm, Ringle said. Several other people were hurt, but none of their injuries were considered life-threatening.

After Howard Lincoln, 49, rode out the storm under his Bronco, he found his home still standing but knocked 4 feet off its foundation. In his frontyard, a large piece of metal was wrapped around a tree.

“It’s the worst thing I’ve ever been through. It was loud and noisy -- windy. It was unreal,” he said. “I feel lucky, totally lucky. When you look up and see that thing on top of you, you don’t know what to think.”

The National Weather Service in Indianapolis said it saw evidence that a tornado had touched down close to its office on the southwest side of the city. The worst of the storm passed south of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but rain delayed the start of the Indianapolis 500 and forced a nearly two-hour interruption.

About 50 residents were in the Keystone Health Care Center when wind tore off the roof. They were removed from the Indianapolis nursing home, many wrapped in sheets and blankets, and were being examined before being taken to another nursing home.

In the St. Louis suburb of Berkeley, strong winds snapped off part of a tree and dropped it onto a sport utility vehicle, killing the driver, Darren Clark, 39, of Ferguson, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said.

On Saturday night, a tornado hit northwest Missouri near Weatherby, leveling a house and ripping a mobile home from its base.

Two women in the house and a man in the mobile home were killed, but two children found tucked underneath the man survived, Daviess County Sheriff Kevin Heldenbrand said.

High wind was blamed for two deaths in separate accidents Saturday on Interstate 70 in northwest Kansas, including that of state Sen. Stan Clark (R-Oakley). Clark was killed when his car was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer after the wind blew dust that cut visibility, the Kansas Highway Patrol said.

Severe weather also swept through Nebraska, including at least two tornadoes in the southern part of the state.