Tornado

GREENSBURG, Kan. -- Anxiety mounted here yesterday as rescue teams continued combing through the ruins of this country town in a long-shot search for survivors, two days after a violent tornado took nine lives and leveled nearly everything. As more than 40 searchers scanned the heaps of bricks and wooden beams for signs of life, National Guard troops and state law enforcement officers barred families from returning to their former homes, frustrating many survivors eager to reclaim old scrapbooks and other priceless mementos.

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. -- Under clear skies, tens of thousands of residents across Oklahoma and Kansas began grappling yesterday with the aftermath of a series of monster tornadoes that killed at least 43 people, injured more than 500, destroyed more than 1,500 buildings and left behind mile after mile of twisted metal, denuded trees, crumpled cars and collapsed buildings.Standing in the anonymous rubble of their communities, they stared, shook their heads and joked ruefully, hoping to find some shard of their former lives that had escaped the devastation.

DEL CITY, Okla. -- President Clinton brought personal solace and the promise of federal financial aid yesterday to tornado survivors in Oklahoma, where devastating twisters killed 41 people and caused more than $600 million in property losses Monday.On a walking tour of the hard-hit Frolic Meadows neighborhood southwest of Oklahoma City, the president spent 90 minutes embracing residents and offering his sympathy.Tammy Weston, a mother of three whose family "lost it all" when the storm hit, said the president's words of consolation "made us feel better, actually."

MOORE, Okla. -- Six days ago the killer tornadoes struck, and for those left homeless, everyday routines are on hold. But as the massive cleanup begins, rebuilding homes and getting back to normal may take longer than they expect.A strong economy and a construction boom have created a nationwide shortage of building materials and construction crews. Supply cannot meet demand, and that is driving up prices.Moore's mayor, Glenn Lewis, estimated that rebuilding could take from six months to a year.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- For as long as even the very oldest can remember, the wail of warning sirens atop courthouses, little police stations, and volunteer fire departments has pierced the calm of the drowsy Alabama communities of Rock Creek, Oak Grove, and Sylvan Springs.It chases the people deep into their basements and down on their knees, till the skies clear and they walk outside to see who was spared, who was not.Always, their prayers seemed to nudge the full force of the wind away, so that while a few lives have always been lost, a few houses destroyed, the communities have survived.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Frantic rescue workers hacked through splintered trees and clawed through ruined houses in parts of the Southeast, searching for survivors from tornadoes that left roads littered with bodies, whole communities destroyed and at least 38 people dead.A line of storms ripped through one small town after another in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, destroying homes, churches and schools, burying hundreds in rubble, sucking people out of their houses and leaving one man dead in the branches of a tree.

SPENCER, S.D. -- There's no explaining the things fate chooses to spare.The mutilated green shell that used to be the house of 86-year-old Marlys Muters was ankle deep in broken glass and mangled furniture yesterday, but just outside lay a musical Mother's Day card playing "Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home."The two-story house of Ward and Gloria Satterlee, the minister and organist at the Nazarene Church, is now an eviscerated mound of splinters and shreds, but sticking out from the pile was a white sheaf of church music, a piece called "Alleluja!"

AN OLD FRIEND of mine lives in San Francisco, which is a great place to live if you don't mind the Earth splitting open occasionally and buildings collapsing around you.Anyway, Steve called the other day to say that the Bay Area had been hit by another earthquake just before dawn. Apparently, it was a pretty good jolt, too -- 4.1 on the Richter scale.Me, I'm the type of person who gets jittery watching Jell-O quiver in a bowl.If the walls started shaking and I got flung out of bed by an earthquake at 4 in the morning, I'd be knocking back fistfuls of Valium like they were Tic-Tacs.

FROSTBURG -- When word of tornadoes crackled across police scanners in this small town tucked in the hills of Western Maryland, Dwayne Bittner did not hesitate. He gathered his wife and two children and ran to the basement.They made it with no time to spare.Before they reached the bottom of the stairs, a twister struck their three-bedroom home. It lifted the house from its foundation, tore off a mud room and sent a pair of French doors flying through the house and out the front windows."It sounded like a whoosh wind," Bittner said, swinging his arms to emphasize the point.

Time to clean out the notebook and clue everyone in on a bunch of TV happenings set for the coming weeks.One thing about the weather: it always seems worse somewhere else.For proof, check out the season premiere of "National Geographic Explorer," set for 7 p.m. Sunday on TBS. You know there's something nasty in store when the two-hour-long show is being billed as "Disaster Sunday."First up, "Landslide" looks at the expensive homes and other West Coast properties that have fallen victim to El Nino.

The small tornado that swept across southeastern Baltimore County on Saturday afternoon damaged 27 homes in the Essex area, but only one sustained major damage, the Baltimore County Office of Emergency Management said Monday. There were no immediate estimates of damages. The twister was one of two that formed over Baltimore and Harford counties as a line of thunderstorms approached the Chesapeake Bay soon after 3 p.m. A third storm over Anne Arundel County spawned a waterspout that crossed the bay and passed just north of Love Point on Kent Island.

An apparent tornado knocked down power lines and tree limbs Saturday afternoon in the Essex and Rockaway Beach sections of Baltimore County, authorities said. A tree landed on a house in the 900 block of Lance Avenue, fire officials said. The family was displaced, but no one was injured. Police began receiving reports of storm damage about 4 p.m., including tree branches blocking roads. More than three dozen houses sustained minor damage, said Baltimore County Fire Department spokeswoman Elise Armacost.

A storm packing heavy winds and rain struck two Western Maryland communities yesterday evening, causing an undetermined number of power outages and downed trees, state police in Garrett County said. At least 15 houses in Accident and Friendsville, in the northwestern part of the county, were damaged, but no injuries were reported, police said. The National Weather Service in Pittsburgh said officials would survey the area today to determine whether a tornado touched down. Meteorologist Rich Cain said he had received reports of funnel cloud sightings in Preston County, W.Va.

About 14,000 BGE customers in Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Harford and Calvert counties temporarily lost power yesterday afternoon as a cold front from the west brought thunderstorms and tornado watches to the area. Firefighters in Prince George's County reported seeing a possible tornado touch down in the Clinton-Brandywine area, but National Weather Service officials could not confirm that it was a twister. The worst of the storm hit south and east of Baltimore, downing power lines and trees in Fairfax County, Va., and dumping large hail in the Lothian area of Anne Arundel County and parts of Calvert County, according to the National Weather Service.

HOUSTON -- Search and rescue teams searched desperately for survivors yesterday after yet another barrage of tornadoes barreled through several states, killing at least 22 people. The outbreak of devastating twisters Saturday evening - at least the fourth serious U.S. tornado disaster this year - took its heaviest toll in Missouri, where 15 were confirmed dead yesterday, including 12 in rural Newton County. The tornado touched down in the state's southwest corner about 6 p.m. Saturday and cut a path of destruction nearly a mile wide at some points, according to National Weather Service officials.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A tornado that spun across the Oklahoma-Missouri border killed several people as severe storms raked the nation's heartland yesterday, taking at least 11 lives, mangling buildings and trapping people in rubble in the storm-weary region. At least six people were killed as the tornado flattened the northeastern Oklahoma town of Picher before the funnel struck about 15 miles away near Seneca, Mo., and killed at least three, authorities said. The death toll in Oklahoma could climb, said state Emergency Management spokeswoman Michelann Ooten.

An overnight storm flooded roads and streams south of Baltimore yesterday morning, snarled rush hour traffic, interrupted MARC train service to Washington and triggered a brief tornado scare in Prince George's County. Cheron Wicker, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Transit Administration, said flooding along the Camden and Brunswick MARC lines forced trains to operate at reduced speeds early yesterday morning. High water on the Amtrak tracks forced Penn Line MARC trains to stop at the New Carrollton station, and passengers had to transfer to the Washington METRO system to finish their commute into Washington.

Jeffrey Brauner of Baltimore spotted an odd-looking tornado on TV news recently. It was no funnel, he said, "just a big, dark blob of clouds sagging down going the same speed as the clouds in the sky. Is this type of tornado more or less dangerous than the funnel type?" Tornadoes take many forms (wedge, funnel, cone, tube, rope) and colors. Some start as funnels, broaden, then die as ropes. There is no correlation between shape and strength. They're all bad news.

Two tornadoes ripped through the Maryland suburbs of Washington yesterday, part of a weather system that sparked fires, spawned hail and flooded roads around the state. Afternoon reports of severe weather in Charles and Prince George's counties were confirmed as tornadoes late last night by the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va. No injuries were reported. Closer to Baltimore, the weather service issued a tornado warning for northern Baltimore County shortly after 6 p.m. for about 40 minutes, advising people to take cover.

A howling wind and flying debris sent the Stinebaughs to the basement of their Harford County home. "The trees," Kim Stinebaugh recalled, "were dancing in circles." After a three-hour tour of the Fallston area yesterday, the National Weather Service confirmed what many there had suspected: Monday evening's storm included a tornado. The twister was rated an EF-1, the second-weakest rating on the scale that measures tornadoes. But with winds of 86 to 110 mph, it was stronger than last month's tornado north of Butler in Baltimore County, which was an EF-0 with 65 to 85 mph winds.