Severe weather leaves at least 27 dead, including 18 in Kentucky

LONDON, Ky.  — Storm systems sweeping across parts of the Midwest and South overnight Friday have left at least 27 people dead, many of them in Kentucky, where what appeared to be a devastating tornado pulverized homes and flipped a car on an interstate.

In Kentucky, at least 18 people were killed by severe weather and at least 10 were in critical condition, Gov. Andy Beshear said Saturday. Seventeen of the fatalities were in Laurel County, in the state’s southeast, and one was in Pulaski County.

Among the dead was a firefighter with the Laurel County Fire Department who was responding to the weather emergency. The Fire Department did not immediately say how Maj. Roger Leslie Leatherman, a 39-year veteran, was killed or when.

Kayla Patterson, her husband and their five children huddled in a tub in their basement in London, the Laurel County seat, as the tornado raged around them.

“You could literally hear just things ripping in the distance, glass shattering everywhere, just roaring like a freight train,” she recalled Saturday. “It was terrible.”

The family eventually emerged to the sounds of sirens and panicked neighbors. While the family’s own home was spared, others right behind it were demolished, Patterson said as the sound of power tools buzzed in the background. The neighborhood was dotted with piles of lumber, metal sheeting, insulation and stray belongings — a suitcase, a sofa, some six-packs of paper towels.

Rescuers were searching for survivors all night and into the morning, the Sheriff’s Office said. An emergency shelter was set up at a high school and donations of food and other necessities were arriving.

The National Weather Service hadn’t yet confirmed that a tornado struck, but meteorologist Philomon Geertson said it was likely. The severe weather ripped across the largely rural area and extended to London-Corbin Airport shortly before midnight.

Laurel County resident Chris Cromer said he got the first of two tornado alerts on his phone around 11:30 p.m. Friday, about a half-hour before the tornado struck. He and his wife grabbed their dog, jumped in their car, went to a relative’s home nearby and got into a crawl space.

“We could hear and feel the vibration of the tornado coming through,” said Cromer, 46.

His home is intact, though a piece of the roof was ripped off and windows were broken. A house two doors down was destroyed, along with others in the Sunshine Hills neighborhood, Cromer said.

“It’s one of those things that you see on the news in other areas, and you feel bad for people — then, when it happens, it’s just surreal,” he said, describing a landscape of destruction. “It makes you be thankful to be alive, really.”

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The storm was the latest severe weather to cause deaths and widespread damage in Kentucky. Two months ago, at least 24 people died in a round of storms that swelled creeks and submerged roads. Hundreds of people were rescued, and most of the deaths were caused by vehicles getting stuck in high water.

A storm in late 2021 spawned tornadoes that killed 81 people and leveled portions of towns in western Kentucky. The next summer, historic floodwaters inundated parts of eastern Kentucky, leaving dozens more dead.

Deaths, destruction in St. Louis

About 1,200 tornadoes strike the U.S. annually, and they have been reported in all 50 states over the years. Researchers have found in recent years that deadly tornadoes were happening less frequently in the traditional “Tornado Alley” of Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas and more frequently in parts of the more densely populated and tree-filled mid-South area.

The latest Kentucky storms were part of a weather system Friday that killed seven in Missouri and two in northern Virginia, authorities said. The system also spawned tornadoes in Wisconsin, brought a punishing heat wave to Texas and temporarily enveloped parts of Illinois — including Chicago — in a pall of dust on an otherwise sunny day.

“Well that was ... something,” the weather service’s Chicago office wrote on X after issuing its first-ever dust storm warning for the city. Thunderstorms in central Illinois had pushed strong winds over dry, dusty farmland and northward into the Chicago area, the weather agency said.

In St. Louis, Mayor Cara Spencer said five people died, 38 were injured and more than 5,000 homes were affected in her city.

“This is truly, truly devastating,” Spencer said. An overnight curfew was to continue in the most damaged neighborhoods.

National Weather Service radar indicated a likely tornado touched down between 2:30 and 2:50 p.m. in Clayton, Mo., in the St. Louis area. It touched down in the area of Forest Park, home to the Saint Louis Zoo and the site of the 1904 World’s Fair and Olympic Games the same year.

Three people needed aid after part of Centennial Christian Church crumbled, St. Louis Fire Department Battalion Chief William Pollihan told the Associated Press.

Stacy Clark said his mother-in-law, Patricia Penelton, died in the church. He described her as an active volunteer who had many roles, including serving in the choir.

John Randle, a 19-year-old University of Missouri-St. Louis student, said he and his girlfriend were at the St. Louis Art Museum during the storm and were hustled into the basement with about 150 other people.

“You could see the doors flying open, tree branches flying by and people running,” he said. “A lot of people were caught outside.”

The Saint Louis Zoo remained closed Saturday because of damage, but spokesperson Christy Childs said all the animals were safe and there were no reports of significant injuries to staffers, guests or fauna.

A tornado struck in Scott County, about 130 miles south of St. Louis, killing two people, injuring several others and destroying several homes, Sheriff Derick Wheetley wrote on social media.

The weather service said that supercells were likely to develop across parts of Texas and Oklahoma on Saturday afternoon before becoming a line of storms in southwest Oklahoma and parts of Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas on Saturday night.

The biggest risks include large to very large hail that could be up to 3.5 inches, damaging wind gusts and a few tornadoes.

These conditions were expected to continue on Sunday across parts of the central and southern Plains as well as parts of the central High Plains.

“Be prepared to take action if watches and warnings are issued for your area,” the weather service said.

Lovan writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Michael Phillis, Corey Williams and John Hanna in St. Louis, Jennifer Peltz in New York, Sudhin Thanawala in Atlanta, Mike Catalini in Morrisville, Pa., and Juan Lozano in Houston contributed to this report.