Tornadoes kill at least 3 and leave trails of destruction in central U.S.

Blaine Schmidt sifted through the broken glass and splintered wood in his Ohio home Friday, salvaging a guitar and a bundle of diapers.

His couch and a crib had been ripped apart by one of many tornadoes that tore through the central U.S., killing at least three and injuring dozens. The storm peeled open his living room, but the house, at least, was standing. The one next door was flattened.

“I’m lucky to be alive,” Schmidt said hours after he and his roommate took shelter in a bathtub, using the shower curtain to protect themselves from flying window glass.

Thursday night’s storms left destruction, injuries or deaths in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Arkansas. Tornadoes were also suspected in Illinois and Missouri.

The Indian Lake area in Ohio’s Logan County appeared to be the hardest hit. At least three people died in the county northwest of Columbus, said Sheriff Randy Dodds.

Search crews and cadaver dogs went into neighborhoods that had been blocked overnight by gas leaks and fallen trees, Dodds said.

“It’s going to take a long time,” he said, adding that he wasn’t aware of anybody unaccounted for. Much of the damage was in the villages of Lakeview and Russells Point, which are dotted with summer cottages owned by people who come for fishing and boating.

In Lakeview, Sandy Smith was walking downstairs with her cat to seek shelter in a laundry room with her family when the roof came down.

“A couple flashes of light, and then everything just peppered against the house,” she said. Her husband saw their garage blow away.

The storm sheared off the tops of homes and damaged a campground and coin laundry, leaving twisted metal wrapped in the tops of trees. Snowplows cleared debris from roads.

The storm sparked fires and draped power lines through windows of homes, said Amber Fagan, president of the local chamber of commerce.

About 25 people were treated, mostly for broken bones and internal injuries, at the nearest hospital in Bellefontaine, said Laura Miller, a spokesperson for Mary Rutan Hospital.

About half a dozen Lakeview residents who were interviewed by the Associated Press said they heard tornado sirens 10 minutes before the storm hit.

Weather officials were just beginning to confirm the tornadoes, but across the region, awestruck residents captured funnels on video.

In Indiana, a tornado injured 38 people in Winchester. Three were in critical condition, but their injuries were not life-threatening, authorities said. Residents of the town northeast of Indianapolis picked branches and sheet metal from their yards Friday morning. Shingles littered the streets and fields.

Carey Todd, 55, said the tornado looked like a “a bunch of black birds.”

Across from a church that was destroyed, a hymnal was blown open to “Shelter in Time of Storm.”

The storm damaged or destroyed about 130 homes and a Taco Bell restaurant, Mayor Bob McCoy said. He and his wife hunkered in a closet during the twister, which hit around 8 p.m.

“I’ve never heard that sound before,” McCoy said. “I don’t want to hear it again.”

West of Winchester, as many as half the structures in the town of Selma, population 750, might have been damaged, officials said. Minor injuries were reported, emergency officials said in a news release.

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb praised first responders, saying: “By the grace of God, everyone has lived through it all.”

Storms also damaged homes and trailers in the Ohio River communities of Hanover and Lamb in Indiana.

In Milton, Ky., two people were injured when their car was hit by debris from a tornado that damaged as many as 100 homes and businesses, said Trimble County Emergency Management Director Andrew Stark.

In Arkansas, a probable tornado struck the retirement community of Hot Springs Village, southwest of Little Rock, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Erik Green. Baseball-size hail fell, and buildings were destroyed, but there were no reports of injuries, Green said.

The Arkansas storms struck nearly one year after a tornado in the Little Rock area injured more than 50 people and killed one.

Associated Press writer Bickel reported from Lakeview and Seewer from Toledo, Ohio. AP journalists Isabella Volmert, Lisa Baumann, Sarah Brumfield, Rick Callahan, Stefanie Dazio, Kathy McCormack, Ken Miller and Patrick Orsagos contributed to this report.