Big storms rake nation’s eastern half
Published 9:00 pm Saturday, April 14, 2007
ALBANY, N.Y. – The Northeast on Saturday braced for a hard-blowing nor’easter that could bring severe coastal flooding, power outages and more than a foot of snow in some places.
As the system blew across the Plains, the unusually violent spring storm rattled Gulf states with violent thunderstorms, raked Texas with at least two tornadoes and was blamed for five deaths.
“This is very odd for this time of year,” National Weather Service meteorologist John Koch said Saturday in New York. “This is something that you would expect to see more in the middle of winter.”
A tornado Friday night tore roofs off houses and destroyed porches and garages in Haltom City, Texas. About a dozen tractor-trailer rigs were blown onto their sides.
“I felt my house start shaking like the wind and I ran in here and grabbed my little girl,” Amanda Rymer, 21, said. “As soon as I moved her, the roof fell in right where she was standing.”
A second tornado that night in Benbrook, southwest of Fort Worth, caused minor damage, according to the National Weather Service. More wind damage to power lines, trees and roofs was reported to the east in Dallas and Rockwall counties, but meteorologists had yet to confirm Saturday whether tornadoes formed there.
One man was killed in Fort Worth by a pile of lumber that fell on him from his truck during Friday’s storm, and a police officer in Irving died when his patrol car slid on wet pavement and struck a utility pole, authorities said.
Three people were killed in Kansas in traffic accidents on highways covered with ice and slush, police said.
Snow stopped falling by Saturday afternoon in eastern Kansas, where some schools and businesses closed Friday as blowing snow created whiteout conditions. Up to 15 inches of snow fell in southwestern Kansas.
By Saturday afternoon, the system was spreading rain from Louisiana to Virginia and across much of the Ohio Valley. Lines of strong thunderstorms rolled across Louisiana and Mississippi into northern Alabama, and the National Weather Service posted tornado warnings for wide areas of Mississippi and some parts of Alabama. By Saturday night the storm reached western South Carolina, where minor wind damage was reported.
The weather system was forecast to strengthen when it reaches the East Coast on Sunday and form a nor’easter, a storm that follows the coast northward, with northeasterly wind driving waves and heavy rain.
