The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 7

The Des Moines Register Metro Edition Wednesday, May 25, 2011 Page7A L-1 A- a8-- jH lltUlll, I i fihY'ji ft 1 Mrl i I I CHRIS I ANniRFRGFRAWnCIATED PRESS Neighbors pitch in to help recover items out of the wrecked home of Scott and M'Lynn McCann west of El Reno, after a tornado tore through on Tuesday. 7 die as storms clobber Oklahoma, Kansas THE LeafGuard Brand. Get It. And Forget It Associated Press El Reno, Okla. Violent storms roared across middle America on Tuesday, killing seven people and injuring dozens more in two states, with several tornadoes touching down in Oklahoma and high winds pounding rural Kansas.

Cherokee Ballard, a spokeswoman for the state medical examiner, said four people died west of Oklahoma City in Canadian County, where a weather-monitoring site in El Reno recorded 151 mph winds. And in Chickasha, about 40 miles southwest of Oklahoma City, a 26-year-old woman died when a tornado struck a mobile home park. In Kansas, police said two people died when high winds threw a tree into their van around 6 p.m. near the small town of St. John, about 100 miles west of Wichita.

The highway was shut down because of storm damage. More severe weather was expected after nightfall as the storms continued east. "Unfortunately, this event will likely continue for some time," Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin said. The government's Storm Prediction Center had warned since the weekend that strong, long-lived tornadoes could hit Oklahoma and adjacent parts of Kansas and Texas.

The storm that killed four west of Oklahoma City later moved to the capital's northern suburbs and on toward Stillwater covering a distance of about 80 miles. The long track gave Okla-homans plenty of time to seek shelter or run away or in Lynn Hartman's case, both. Hartman, 39, said that as warning sirens sounded she huddled in the pantry of her Piedmont home with her two children and the fam ily dog until her husband, Mike, arrived home from work. "We're there just crying and praying," Hartman said, and her daughter, Sierra, 10, was saying repeatedly, "I just don't want to die." The family then decided to flee their home as the storm approached, crossing the Oklahoma City metropolitan area to Shawnee. Once there, sirens sounded again for a storm approaching the Oklahoma City area from the south.

The four drove around for three hours before returning to find their roof gone. The pantry was standing, but Hartman wasn't convinced the family would have survived the strong storm. Storm clouds also spawned funnel clouds and at least one tornado in north Texas, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. IOWA HEART AND MERCY THE BEST FOR CARDIOVASCULAR CARE. I 1 jr --I 4 i forget iC -1 ft FS? i Here's why more and more homeowners are switching to LeafGuard: Offer expires June 30, 20 1 1 For men or more risk factors for heart disease and women betweeen the ages of 40 and 75.

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