EDWARDSVILLE, Illinois, Dec. 11 (BUS): A tornado reportedly stormed a nursing home in Arkansas on Friday night, killing one person and injuring several others, and emergency crews in southern Illinois responded to reports of injuries at an Amazon warehouse after an accident. The Associated Press reported that the roof collapsed amid storms there.
At least one death was also reported in Missouri from severe storms, some believed to be hurricanes, that swept through the Midwest and parts of the South.
Marvin Day, a judge in Craighead County, told The Associated Press that a tornado hit the Monnet Manor nursing home in Arkansas at about 8:15 p.m., killing one person and trapping 20 people indoors as the building collapsed. Officials had announced earlier that at least two people had been killed.
Within two hours, Day said, the building was cleared and everyone who initially thought it was inside were confined.
“It appears to be pretty much destroyed,” Day said of the building. “…it happens quickly but it seems there has been some time with the hurricane sirens going off.” Some residents were found in the basement, he said, “and they were prepared for it.”
He said five people were seriously injured, some with minor injuries. The nursing home has 86 beds.
Day said another nursing home about 20 miles away in Truman was badly damaged but no injuries were reported. Residents were evacuated because the building was unsafe.
Footage from St. Louis television stations showed dozens of emergency vehicles at the Amazon Center near Edwardsville, Illinois, about 25 miles west of St. Louis. It wasn’t immediately clear if or how many people were infected, but the Collinsville, Illinois Emergency Management Agency, on Facebook, described the matter as a “mass casualty incident.” An official told KTVI-TV that as many as 100 people were believed to have been in the building, working the night shift, at the time of the collapse.
The Belleville News-Democrat reports that the Amazon fulfillment center in Edwardsville opened with two warehouses in 2016, with an area of 1.5 million square feet. Warehouses are used to store items until they are shipped to mail-order customers.
A photo in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch showed that much of the wall and ceiling of the massive Amazon warehouse had completely collapsed.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the damage to the Amazon warehouse was from straight-line storms or a hurricane, but a major tornado was reported in the Edwardsville area around the time the building was damaged. The National Weather Service office near St. Louis issued reports of “radar-confirmed tornadoes” in the Edwardsville area.
In fact, weather service office workers themselves had to take cover as another tornado passed near their office in Weldon Spring, Missouri, about 30 miles west of St. Louis. This tornado is suspected of destroying several homes in New Mill and Defiance, Missouri, injuring at least three people, one of whom is in hospital with serious injuries. At night, rescue crews sifted through the damage to make sure there were no additional casualties.
The collapse came as a powerful thunderstorm, and possibly a hurricane, hitting the St. Louis area. Winds of up to 70 mph were reported in parts of St. Charles and St. Louis counties in Missouri.
In rural St. Charles County, Missouri, one person was killed and two others injured when buildings collapsed near the town of Defiance. The National Weather Service office in suburban St. Louis confirmed the death, but no other information was immediately available.
“The safety and well-being of our employees and partners is our highest priority at this time,” Amazon spokesman Richard Rocha said in a written statement Friday evening. “We are assessing the situation and will share additional information when it becomes available.”
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said on Twitter that Illinois State Police and disaster officials are coordinating with local officials in Edwardsville, and have been monitoring the situation.
“My prayers are with the residents of Edwardsville tonight, and I have reached out to the mayor to provide any government resources needed,” Pritzker said.
Storms in Illinois and Arkansas were among several places in the Midwest that reported tornadoes or on the ground.
The storms caused additional damage as they tracked through Tennessee and into Kentucky. Several buildings have collapsed in the Kentucky Mayfield community of southwest Kentucky, Sarah Burgess, a police officer with the Kentucky State Police in Mayfield, said.
Burgess said authorities have removed trees and power lines from roads in order to begin assessing the damage. She said several people were trapped inside a damaged candle factory in Mayfield.
Pictures posted on social media from Mayfield showed trees uprooted, a courthouse tower smashed, and business windows smashed in storms.
AOQ