SENECA, Mo. – More than a third of the 22 people killed by a tornado that smashed parts of Oklahoma and Missouri over the weekend died in cars, troubling experts who say vehicles are one of the worst places to be during a twister.
“It's like taking a handful of Matchbox cars and rolling them across the kitchen floor,” Sgt. Dan Bracker of the Missouri State Highway Patrol said, surveying the damage in and around Seneca, near the Oklahoma line. “This is devastating.”
Among those killed were three people in Oklahoma who were rushing to reach a relative's house in their car; a woman whose car was blown off a road near Seneca; and four family members – Rick Rountree, his wife, his 13-year-old son and his mother-in-law – who were in a van on the way to a friend's wedding when a twister packing winds of 170 mph struck the Seneca area on Saturday night.
“They were on the road when the warnings came,” said Rountree's brother-in-law, Larry Bilke.
About 100 people have died in U.S. twisters this year, the worst toll in a decade, according to the National Weather Service, and the danger has not passed yet. Tornado season typically peaks in the spring and early summer, then again in the late fall.
This could also prove to be the busiest tornado season on record in the United States, though the final figure on the number of twisters is not yet in.
All together, at least 25 people died in Missouri, Oklahoma, Georgia and Alabama after the severe storms erupted Saturday over the Southern Plains and swept east.
The death toll rose yesterday when Tyler Casey, a 21-year-old firefighter in Seneca, died at a hospital. Officials said he got caught in the tornado while trying to warn people to seek shelter.
According to data from the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center, 49 of the 705 deaths – or about 7 percent – attributed to tornadoes from 1997 to 2007 were people who were in vehicles when the storm struck.
“They can cover more ground than you can in your car, so unless you know you are moving away from the tornado, the best thing you can do is find a strong structure,” National Weather Service meteorologist Andy Foster said.
The twister that struck Seneca and surrounding Newton County was moving at 50 mph to 60 mph, Foster said. One car was found a half-mile from the tornado track.
Authorities were still piecing together how some of the other victims died over the weekend.
Meanwhile, to the northeast, a wet, gusty storm that lashed the mid-Atlantic states yesterday prompted evacuations, flooded roads, fanned the flames of a deadly New Jersey fire and wrecked a research vessel off the Delaware coast, killing a crew member.
Tens of thousands of electricity customers in several states lost power as up to 7 inches of rain fell Sunday and yesterday and wind gusts in some places reached hurricane strength.
Yesterday morning's high tide sent waves crashing through low-lying areas, forcing the evacuation of more than 200 residents from coastal communities in central Delaware.
