YELLVILLE, Ark. – Another wave of severe storms pummeled a wide swath of the United States and Canada, leading to flash floods and water rescues Wednesday in the Ozark Mountains, dropping a tornado that ravaged a community in upstate New York and stranding drivers in high water around Toronto.
The relentless series of storms has caused deaths or damage from the Plains to New England this week. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost power and air conditioning during days of sweltering heat.
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As much as 11 inches (nearly 28 centimeters) of rain fell overnight into Wednesday on parts of the Ozarks in Arkansas and Missouri, the National Weather Service said.
Buses and ambulances evacuated 86 people from a nursing home in Yellville, Arkansas, where water rose to about 4 feet (1.2 meters) during flash flooding, Marion County Sheriff Gregg Alexander said. A section of a bridge washed out and a historic courthouse flooded.
Cities across upstate New York were cleaning up after a storm swept through Tuesday with high winds and spectacular lightning and flying debris that killed one person.
In the small city of Rome, New York, a tornado ripped off roofs, tipped over vehicles and turned several buildings into piles of rubble.
Steeples crumbled and roofs were torn apart at First Presbyterian Church and the St. Mary’s Church, both built in the 1800s. Copper sheets from the roof of First Presbyterian were found wrapped around utility poles a quarter mile away.
The winds were fierce enough to move a multi-ton tourist attraction, a B-52 bomber displayed at Griffiss Business and Technology Park. A mural of a Revolutionary War figure on horseback — a Rome landmark — was destroyed, along with the building on which it was painted. All that remained was an image of a horse hoof.
Speaking outside St. Mary’s, Gov. Kathy Hochul said it was “miraculous” no one was killed in the city of 31,000. She toured the downtown Wednesday and said 22 buildings were damaged or destroyed. She described seeing trees “collapsed like toothpicks” and told of mobile homes tipped over with people inside. The governor marveled at narrow escapes, including two children in a medical waiting room who emerged unscathed even though the building was partially “obliterated.”
A National Weather Service preliminary damage survey released Wednesday night estimated the Rome tornado’s top winds at 135 mph (217 kph) and gave it an EF2 rating, considered “significant,” on the Enhanced Fujita scale.
Chiropractor Kingsley Kabari was with a patient in his second-floor office in Rome when his cellphone blared with a tornado alert Tuesday afternoon. By the time he could pick it up to mute it, the storm had arrived, he said, blowing out windows, tearing at the roof of the two-story brick building and sending debris flying.
“It was like a bomb dropped on the building with very high-power wind. Things were just flying everywhere — and this was inside,” he said Wednesday.
The tornado cut a path between two nursing homes operated by Grand Healthcare, sparing them of the most severe damage but pelting the buildings with powerful winds and heavy rains that knocked out their power, regional vice president Bruce Gendron said.
He said he was at one of the nursing homes when the storm hit, and staffers moved residents away from the windows in case trees came toppling into the building.
The facilities' backup generators kicked in, keeping most systems intact until normal power was restored Wednesday afternoon, he said.
“To our residents of Rome: Do not be discouraged. This community is resilient and we will build back,” Mayor Jeff Lanigan said.
A weaker tornado given an initial EF1 rating, with a top estimated wind speed of 110 mph (177 kph), also touched down about 230 miles (370 kilometers) away in Lyme, New Hampshire on Tuesday night, the weather service said. It remained on the ground for about 1.8 miles (2.9 kilometers) and knocked down at least 100 trees, said Jon Palmer, a weather service meteorologist in Gray, Maine.
About 30 miles (48 kilometers) away in Canastota, storm debris hit and killed an 82-year-old man, village administrator Jeremy Ryan said. Hochul said three homes collapsed and 30 other structures were damaged in the community.
A thousand miles (1,600 kilometers) away in Flippin, Arkansas, people went door to door to get as many as 40 residents to flee dangerous conditions before floodwaters began to recede. At least 30 residents were evacuated from an apartment complex in Greenbrier, 34 miles (55 kilometers) north of Little Rock, state emergency managers said.
“We’re not griping, because we absolutely needed the rain, but it will take a little while for us to drain out and clean the roadways back up,” said Alexander, the Marion County sheriff.
Bill Scruggs and his crew from Wild Bill’s Outfitter, based south of Yellville, scrambled to save their canoes and kayaks from a sandbar in the Buffalo National River as waters quickly rose before dawn Wednesday.
Nearly 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) of rain fell overnight on the tourist hub of Branson, Missouri. Taney County Sheriff Brad Daniels said several campgrounds were evacuated and people had to be rescued from a flooded mobile home park in nearby Hollister.
Trees fell on houses and cars Tuesday in Keene, New Hampshire, forcing some residents to evacuate. Around Toronto, flooding temporarily closed several major roads and left drivers stranded. Authorities said they rescued at least 14 people from flooding on the highway.
More than 140,000 homes and businesses lacked power Wednesday evening in Northeastern U.S. states, according to PowerOutage.us. The East Coast from Maine to the Carolinas was warned of weather that could feel hotter than 100 degrees (37.8 Celsius) in some places.
A storm helped bring under control a forest fire burning at a military bombing range in New Jersey as it dropped half an inch of rain, the state forest fire service said.
This week's severe weather struck the Chicago area especially hard. The weather service said it so far has confirmed at least 18 tornadoes in northern Illinois and northwestern Indiana: six on Sunday and 12 during a frightening stretch Monday night.
The larger bunch emerged from a derecho, long-lasting windstorms that began in Iowa and rolled east for hours, according to senior meteorologist Brett Borchardt.
“It's not unprecedented, but it's very unusual. When we have a line of storms like that, they’re prolific tornado producers,” he said.
Across the U.S., the storms have led to at least five deaths, including the one in New York. Flooding killed an 88-year-old couple who were in their car near Elsah, Illinois, on Tuesday, and a 76-year-old passenger in a pickup in Rockford, Illinois, on Sunday. A fallen tree killed a 44-year-old woman in Cedar Lake, Indiana, on Monday.
A cold front is forecast to cause scattered showers and thunderstorms in the East over the next few days but will also provide relief from the heat in the eastern and central United States, according to the weather service. However, excessive heat is forecast for parts of the West and Southeast.
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White reported from Detroit. Associated Press writers Karen Matthews in New York City, Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, New York, Carolyn Thompson in Buffalo, New York, and Nick Perry in Boston contributed.