Tornadoes Leave Ohio a 'War Zone'

At least 7 dead; storms losing power as they head east
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jun 6, 2010 4:22 PM CDT
Tornadoes Leave Ohio a 'War Zone'
Firefighters look over damage left by a tornado in Millbury, Ohio, Sunday, June 6, 2010. Tornadoes and thunderstorms that swept through the Midwest overnight killed a number of people in Ohio.   (J.D. Pooley)

A tornado unleashed a "war zone" of destruction in northwest Ohio, destroying dozens of homes and an emergency services building as a line of storms killed at least seven people and threatened to do more damage today as it hit the Northeast. Storms collapsed a movie-theater roof in Illinois and ripped siding off a building at a Michigan nuclear plant, forcing a shutdown. But most of the worst was reserved for a 100-yard-wide, 7-mile-long strip southeast of Toledo now littered with wrecked vehicles, splintered wood, and family possessions.

The tornado ripped the roof and back wall off Lake High School's gymnasium about 11pm yesterday, several hours before the graduation ceremony was supposed to begin there. The school board president said one of the victims was the father of the class valedictorian. A cold front colliding with warm unstable air produced the storms that struck Saturday night, meteorologist Marty Mullen of the National Weather Service said, and that front was draped from New England south through the mid-Atlantic region later today. The storm was weakening as it headed east.
(More tornado stories.)

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