LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A new wave Severe storm The hurricane battered wide swaths of the United States and Canada, causing flooding and rescue operations in the Ozark Mountains on Wednesday, spawning tornadoes that devastated communities in upstate New York and leaving drivers stranded in high waters around Toronto.
A relentless series of storms has caused death and destruction from the Plains to New England this week, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power or with broken air conditioning after days of scorching heat.
Up to 11 inches of rain fell in parts of the Ozark Plateau in Arkansas and Missouri overnight and into Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.
Buses and ambulances evacuated 86 people from a nursing home in Yellville, Arkansas, after flash flooding caused water levels to rise to about 4 feet (1.2 meters), Marion County Sheriff Greg Alexander said. Part of a bridge was washed away and a historic courthouse was submerged.
In an interview with The Associated Press, National Weather Service meteorologist Bob Oravec said numerous heat watches, warnings and advisories remain in effect across the country.
The cleanup came after a storm that lashed upstate New York cities on Tuesday, bringing high winds, severe thunderstorms and flying debris that left one person dead.
In the small city of Rome, New York state, a tornado ripped off roofs, flipped vehicles and reduced several buildings to piles of rubble.
First Presbyterian Church and St. Mary’s Church, both built in the 1800s, had their steeples collapse and roofs torn off. Copper sheets from the roof of First Presbyterian Church were found wrapped around a telephone pole a quarter of a mile away.
The winds were strong enough to rock a B-52 bomber, a multi-ton tourist attraction at the Griffith Business Technology Park. A Rome landmark mural of a Revolutionary War figure on horseback was destroyed along with the building it was painted on. All that remained was a painted image of a horse’s hoof.
Speaking outside St. Mary’s, Gov. Kathy Hockle said it was a “miracle” that there were no fatalities in the city of 31,000. The governor toured downtown on Wednesday and said 22 buildings were damaged or destroyed. She said she saw trees “fall like toothpicks” and a mobile home flip over with its people inside. The governor marveled at some of the close calls, including how two children escaped unharmed in a medical waiting room despite the building being partially “destroyed.”
A preliminary damage assessment released by the National Weather Service Wednesday night estimated the Rome tornado had maximum wind speeds of 135 mph (217 kph) and was given an EF2 rating, or “significant,” on the Enhanced Fujita scale.
Chiropractor Kingsley Cavalli was with a patient in his second-floor office in Rome on Tuesday afternoon when a tornado warning rang out on his cellphone. By the time Cavalli picked up his phone to turn it off, the storm had already moved in, blowing out windows, ripping the roof off his two-story brick building and sending debris flying, he said.
“There was a really strong wind and it felt like a bomb had been dropped on the building. Things were flying everywhere – and it was inside the building,” he said Wednesday.
The tornado passed between two nursing homes run by Grand Healthcare, avoiding the most serious damage, but strong winds and heavy rain battered the buildings and caused power outages, said Bruce Gendron, regional vice president.
He was in one of the nursing homes when the storm hit and said staff moved residents away from windows in case trees fell on the buildings.
He said the facility’s backup generators kicked in and kept most systems intact until normal power was restored Wednesday afternoon.
“Residents of Rome, please do not despair, this community is resilient and we will rebuild,” Mayor Jeff Lanigan said.
The weak tornado, initially rated an EF1, had maximum wind speeds estimated at 110 mph (177 kph), and made landfall Tuesday night in Lyme, New Hampshire, about 230 miles (370 km) away, according to the Weather Service. The tornado stayed on the ground for about 1.8 miles (2.9 km) and downed at least 100 trees, said John Palmer, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Gray, Maine.
About 30 miles (48 kilometers) away, in Canastota, an 82-year-old man was killed when he was hit by debris from the storm, village administrator Jeremy Ryan said. Three homes were destroyed and 30 other buildings were damaged in the area, Hoekl said.
1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away, workers went door-to-door to help 40 or so residents escape dangerous conditions before floodwaters receded in Flippin’, Arkansas. At least 30 residents were evacuated from the Greenbriar Apartments, 34 miles (55 kilometers) north of Little Rock, state emergency managers said.
“We’re not going to complain because we definitely needed the rain, but it’s going to take a little bit longer to drain and get the roads cleared,” Marion County Sheriff Alexander said.
Bill Scruggs of Wild Bill’s Outfitters, based south of Yellville, and his crew scrambled to rescue canoes and kayaks from a sandbar in the Buffalo National River as the waters rose sharply before dawn Wednesday.
About 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) of rain fell overnight in the tourist town of Branson, Missouri. Taney County Sheriff Brad Daniels said several campgrounds had to be evacuated and people had to be rescued from a flooded mobile home park in nearby Hollister.
Trees fell on homes and cars in Keene, New Hampshire, on Tuesday, forcing some residents to evacuate. Flooding in the Toronto area temporarily closed major roads, stranding drivers. Authorities said At least 14 people were rescued. From highway flooding.
More than 140,000 homes and businesses were without power Wednesday evening in northeastern U.S. states, according to PowerOutage.us. Warnings were issued along the East Coast from Maine to the Carolinas that temperatures could exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) in some places.
Thanks to the storm, Forest fires A wildfire broke out at a military bombing range in New Jersey amid half an inch of rain, according to the New Jersey Forest Fire Service.
The severe weather has been especially devastating in the Chicago area this week, with at least 18 tornadoes confirmed so far in northern Illinois and northwestern Indiana, according to the weather service, including six on Sunday and 12 in a frightening stretch Monday night.
Senior meteorologist Brett Borchert said the large cluster of storms grew out of a long-lasting derecho that began in Iowa and moved eastward for hours.
“It’s not unprecedented, but it’s very unusual. When you have back-to-back storms like this, you’re going to produce a lot of tornadoes,” he said.
At least five people have died in the storm across the U.S., including one in New York. An 88-year-old couple died in floodwaters in their car near Elsevier, Illinois, on Tuesday, and a 76-year-old man in a pickup truck died in Rockford, Illinois, on Sunday. A falling tree killed a 44-year-old woman in Cedar Lake, Indiana, on Monday.
The weather service said a cold front is expected to bring scattered showers and thunderstorms to the East over the next few days, bringing relief from the heat in the eastern and central U.S. However, sweltering heat is expected in parts of the West and Southeast.
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White reported from Detroit. Karen Matthews in New York City, Anthony Yzaguirre in Albany, New York, Carolyn Thompson in Buffalo, New York, and Nick Perry in Boston contributed.
