After 1 round of hail, wind, week's 2nd wave in forecast

Midwest, South saw some tornadoes, but fewer than feared

Averie Young stands outside her grandparents’ house Wednesday in Sherman, Texas, after high winds tore the roof off while they were sleeping and caused other major damage. Strong storms Tuesday and Wednesday caused damage in parts of the Midwest and the South. One woman was killed in Tomball, Texas, when a tree fell on her house.
Averie Young stands outside her grandparents’ house Wednesday in Sherman, Texas, after high winds tore the roof off while they were sleeping and caused other major damage. Strong storms Tuesday and Wednesday caused damage in parts of the Midwest and the South. One woman was killed in Tomball, Texas, when a tree fell on her house.

Springtime storms lashed parts of the Midwest and South on Wednesday, but on a smaller scale than the night before when tornadoes in Oklahoma and Texas injured more than a dozen people and damaged homes.

Gusts of up to 75 mph were expected near Louisiana's Gulf Coast during a round of storms, and forecasters said 15 million people along the Mississippi River between Iowa and New Orleans had at least a slight chance of seeing severe weather at some point.

Tornadoes touched down in Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

But expectations weren't as dire as they had been Tuesday, when meteorologists warned that conditions were ripe for a severe weather outbreak.

In Texas, a 62-year-old woman was killed early Wednesday when a tree fell on her home in the Tomball area northwest of Houston, the Harris County sheriff's office said.

In the northern part of the state, four people were hospitalized after their vehicles were caught up in an apparent tornado that hit late Tuesday, Howe Police Chief Carl Hudman said.

The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado touched down Tuesday in Tulsa where storms uprooted trees, snapped power poles and damaged roofs. In a preliminary assessment, the agency determined that the damage less than 1 mile from where Interstate 44 crosses the Arkansas River was consistent with that of an EF1 tornado.

It also confirmed two more relatively weak tornadoes within 30 miles of Oklahoma City: an EF1 near Luther and an EF0 near Mustang.

Hail as big as grapefruit fell Tuesday in northern Kansas, while winds approaching hurricane force -- 74 mph -- raked communities from Nebraska and Missouri to Texas. Uprooted trees, downed power lines and roof damage were reported in parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

An estimated 6-8 inches of rain fell Tuesday evening and overnight near Deshler, Neb., prompting officials to evacuate a nursing home and assisted-living facility.

About 45 patients and residents from Parkview Haven Nursing Home and Meadowlark Heights Assisted Living spent the night at Deshler High School because of high-water worries.

They were allowed to return to their residential-care facilities Wednesday.

The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said last week that the nation could have seen significant tornadoes Tuesday, but it turned out as the weather developed that conditions weren't right for the biggest storms.

By Wednesday afternoon, the Storm Prediction Center had received at least six unconfirmed reports of tornadoes -- two in Texas, two in Kansas and one each in Missouri and Indiana.

National Weather Service spokesman Keli Pirtle said survey teams were assessing the storms.

Hail 4 inches in diameter fell northwest of Marysville, Kan., and residents of Topeka watched the sky nervously during rush hour after forecasters warned that a supercell thunderstorm could produce a tornado at any moment.

The core of the bad weather forecast shifts back to Oklahoma and Texas for today and Friday, then to Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas on Saturday.

Ahead of Tuesday's storms, some Oklahoma school districts either canceled school for the day or sent students home early, hoping they would remain safe.

In Fairview, George Eischen, 51, spent the morning before the storms moving vehicles off the lot at his Chevrolet dealership into his shop and showroom to protect them from hail -- "the real enemy of the car dealer."

Workers at Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield, Mo., did something similar with airplanes when the skies turned a "mean green" ahead of a line of storms.

"We were able to get most of the airplanes into hangars," aviation director John Bales said.

Wednesday's unsettled weather comes on the five-year anniversary of a tornado outbreak that killed more than 300 people in the South, mostly in Alabama.

Information for this article was contributed by Jill Bleed, Daniel C. Houston, Jim Salter and Bill Draper of The Associated Press.

A Section on 04/28/2016

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