Missouri Twisters Kill 4; Damage Widespread

Rescue workers today searched wrecked neighborhoods in Missouri, one of five states hit by tornadoes and high winds that killed at least four people, destroyed an apartment building and damaged scores of barns and homes, authorities said.

The twisters brought widespread damage to six Missouri counties Thursday night, leaving dozens of people homeless, and downed power lines in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio. Paramedics, firefighters and police searching today through wrecked buildings were hampered by unrelenting rain.

In southeast Missouri, Scott County Sheriff Bill Ferrell said the most extensive damage appeared to be in a mobile home park and business area in the southern and eastern sections of Sikeston, and in Vanduser, a town of 320 people about 10 miles to the northwest.

The east side of Vanduser was “just about wiped out,” Ferrell said, and an elderly man there was killed. Two people were found dead today from flooding, and another was missing and presumed dead after his pickup truck plunged into a creek.

5th Fatality Reported

Martha Vandivoort, deputy emergency operations director for Cape Girardeau County Emergency Operations, said she had reports that a fifth person died overnight at a hospital of injuries received in the Sikeston twister. But the fatality could not be confirmed because the hospital’s telephone communications were cut off.

In Vanduser, Mayor Harold Graviett said he was trapped in his grocery store by a twister.

“It created a tremendous suction,” Graviett said. “I was praying that the walls would hold because if they had collapsed they would have killed us for sure.”

Graviett said his mother and son were in his store, and he “pinned them against a partition in the middle” as the storm blew out both the front and back doors.

‘Being in Washing Machine’

“Everything in the store was swirling around. It was like being in a washing machine with everything going round and round. It lasted better than a minute.”

An angry spring storm created a tornado at about 6 p.m. Thursday and it downed the AT&T; microwave tower at Bloomfield, knocking out telephone service in much of southeast Missouri.

The storm swept 20 miles east and struck Sikeston in the next half hour. Vanduser was the next victim.

Bob Knabel, the city manager of Sikeston, estimated that 45 to 50 homes were destroyed in his city.