More severe weather pummels the central US as thousands recover from deadly tornadoes

LONDON Ky AP More tornadoes plowed through the central U S on Monday ripping apart buildings and knocking out power as people from Texas to Kentucky continued to clean up from days of severe weather that killed more than two dozen people and destroyed thousands of homes and buildings At least four tornadoes were verified in Oklahoma and Nebraska on Monday evening according to a preliminary overview from the National Weather Organization Across Oklahoma at least homes were destroyed and multiple buildings were damaged including a fire station that was wiped out according to the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management A spokesperson for the agency commented they have not received any reports of injuries or deaths Around customers were without power in Oklahoma Arkansas and Missouri according to PowerOutage us Parts of several highways were also closed due to flooding or storm damage In northwest Arkansas severe weather caused a Halsey concert to be canceled and a municipal airport had to close temporarily Monday night so crews could remove debris from the field And in Oklahoma Tulsa Residents Schools canceled all afterschool engagements Northern Texas saw softball-sized hail measuring inches centimeters in diameter according to Scott Kleebauer a meteorologist with the utility s Weather Prediction Center Missouri and Kentucky clean up Earlier Monday in St Louis where personnel estimated a Friday tornado damaged buildings and may cost well over billion the mayor warned that federal assistance could take weeks Kentucky has been hardest hit by the storms A devastating tornado late Friday into early Saturday damaged hundreds of homes tossed vehicles and killed at least people largest part of them in southeastern Laurel County In London Kentucky where the devastation was centered the small airport became a beehive of cleanup work after it took a direct hit from a tornado Small aircraft stored there had large dents in them and even wings ripped open Personnel were using it as a base to get water food diapers and other supplies out to the society We have things going on But we re managing it And we re going to get it all cleaned up commented London Mayor Randall Weddle Leaders in Kansas and Texas also were evaluating damage from late Sunday storms The vulnerability of severe storms moves into Alabama Mississippi and Tennessee on Tuesday the weather arrangement revealed Kentucky hit hard The Kentucky storms that killed people were part of a weather system that caused seven deaths in Missouri and two in northern Virginia executives reported Lonnie Nantz hid in a hallway with his wife two daughters and a grandson as the one-story brick home they bought near London in was destroyed around them They were trapped in rubble for about minutes in the midnight darkness before they were rescued unharmed I don t know why this happened I ve tried to live a good life all my life I ve still got the faith noted the -year-old Nantz who went to church as dependably on Sunday London city worker Ashley Taylor was back on the job Monday loading doughnuts to take to a hospital and dispatch center even though there was a tarp on her roof She was lucky the houses across her street were destroyed late Friday night She survived the storm with nine other people and three dogs in the crawl space of a neighbor s home We prayed like never before and just thankful for everything God did for us Taylor commented In surrounding Laurel County first responders mourned one of their own Fellow firefighters revealed the body of Laurel County Fire Major Leslie Leatherman on top of a woman he was shielding from the storm s fury as he answered calls during the worst of the storm The woman was yelling for help and they were in a field across from a destroyed subdivision The injured woman turned out to be Leatherman s wife and authorities aren t sure if he knew who he was protecting in the darkness and chaos the fire department noted on social media St Louis waits for FEMA St Louis Mayor Cara Spencer disclosed five people died were injured and more than homes were affected by an EF tornado with winds up to mph kph that slammed areas north and west of downtown Friday Spencer has estimated that damages will exceed billion Eight miles of pure destruction at times a mile wide Spencer explained at a Monday news conference We re talking about thousands of buildings thousands of families are being displaced The city is awaiting a tragedy declaration from the governor s office as a first step to getting federal assistance U S Sen Josh Hawley a Missouri Republican expressed frustration over the federal response to a deadly March storm I m not happy about the fact we re still waiting from all of that damage two months ago Hawley explained Acting Federal Emergency Management Agency Chief David Richardson commented last week he plans to shift responsibility for tragedy recovery to states this year as part of an agencywide transformation and that FEMA would coordinate federal assistance when deemed necessary Spencer revealed during a news conference Monday evening that crisis protocols put in place in were not followed possibly preventing sirens being activated to warn residents about the tornado She reported it was not clear whose responsibility it was to let the locality know about the exigency but that the fire department will do so moving forward In Texas several tornadoes touched down west of Fort Worth on Sunday including an EF with peak winds of mph kph that caused damage in and around Gordon the weather system disclosed Monday