http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/090508_rpts.htmlhttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090509/ap_on_re_us/us_severe_weather_23 Powerful thunderstorms and tornadoes battered parts of the Midwest on Friday, leaving four people dead, collapsing a church and knocking out power to thousands, authorities said. Two people were killed near Poplar Bluff, Mo., when wind knocked a tree onto their sport utility vehicle. In Dallas County, a man in his 70s had a fatal heart attack after he and his wife were sucked from their home by a tornado and thrown into a field 75 to 100 feet away, said county emergency management director Larry Highfill. The wife was taken to a Springfield hospital. Her condition wasn't immediately known.
A mobile home was blown off its foundation in southeast Kansas, killing a 54-year-old woman inside. Wilson County emergency management spokeswoman Cassandra Edson said it appeared the mobile home was "wrapped around a tree." Wind in the area reached 120 mph, destroying the New Albany United Methodist Church, the town's post office and at least one home, authorities said. Major damage also was reported to a high school in Cherokee, Kan. and to the courthouse in Doniphan, Mo.
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Carbondale Township fire Capt. Mark Black said he wasn't sure if a tornado touched down in his area but the "winds were just amazing. They were howling and the siding on the trailers was flying through the air and there was a pretty hard rain." Law enforcement agencies reported tornado touchdowns in the Jackson County community of Raddle and just south of Pinckneyville in Perry County, National Weather Service meteorologist Amy Seeley said.
Seeley said the strong line of thunderstorms began moving through the region Friday morning. Wind gusts in the Carbondale area reached 100 mph around 1:30 p.m., and sustained winds were as high as 90 mph. ...