Another powerful tornado struck southeastern Missouri early on the morning of the 5th, killing five people and shattering the area twice devastated by tornadoes over the past two weeks.
The Korea Meteorological Administration remains vigilant, predicting that the tornado streak, which started unusually early this year, will continue. The storm has already killed at least 63 people as dozens of large and small tornadoes swept across the South and Midwest at once.
Tornadoes spanned eight states over the weekend, causing extensive damage across vast areas of the United States.
This Missouri tornado swept through the Bollinger County countryside, 80 kilometers south of St. Louis, around 3:30 a.m. on the 5th. Trees were uprooted, houses turned into heaps of broken wood, and buildings collapsed and overlapped each other.
Missouri Highway Patrol Captain Eric Olsen said at a press conference that five people were killed and five injured. Residents of the affected area of Glen Allen said some of the dead were people living in trailer homes along the highway.
On the 5th, nothing remained where the trailer house used to be, except for a concrete embankment and a single pillar. A large stuffed animal was next to a fallen tree, and clothes and kitchen utensils were scattered all over the field.
Twelve buildings were destroyed in the area and more than a dozen partially destroyed houses, police said.
Resident Charles Collier (61) said he saw a funeral car running with the headlights on in Glen Allen, where he owns a warehouse building. It is heartbreaking how the people who have gone through all of this will live.”
A resident named Josh Wells said that he and his son took shelter in the basement of his sister’s house and were unharmed.
“While we were huddled in the basement, we could hear the roar of the storm all around us and everything crashing together,” he said. There was a strong smell of propane leaking from gas cylinders in collapsed houses in the area, he added.
Tornadoes usually appear in late spring in the Midwest, but this year, for the first time in years, they struck in an early spring streak, said Bill Bunting, director of the National Weather Service’s Forecast Center in Oklahoma.
Experts say dry air from the West often collides with moist air from the Gulf of Mexico as it crosses the Rocky Mountains, creating tornadoes and other severe weather.
Missouri Governor Mike Parson said after patrolling the affected area on the 5th that President Joe Biden promised to provide federal assistance to Missouri. Recovery will take months, he said.
According to the Korea Meteorological Administration, tornadoes stay on the ground for only about 15 minutes and rush 24 to 32 km at a time.
Initial observations of the tornado indicated that it was rated EF-2 and was accompanied by winds of up to 228 km/h.
[글렌 앨런( 미 미주리주)= AP/뉴시스]
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.