May 7, 10:15 AM (ET)
By SCOTT CHARTON
PIERCE CITY, Mo. (AP) - Another round of volatile spring weather spread rain and a threat of storms across the region early Wednesday as residents tried to recover from the weekend tornadoes that killed 40 people.
The National Weather Service posted tornado warnings Wednesday morning for southeastern Missouri, northwestern Mississippi, northeast Louisiana and sections of Tennessee.
Pierce City's streets were wet Wednesday morning from overnight rain, and there was more of the same during the day Tuesday.
"Oh, man. Oh, man. Not this again!" Bill Shepherd shouted Tuesday as he lashed blue plastic over his furniture in the rain. "I swear, this weather has put the coffin nail in this little town, and nature just won't let us go in peace."
The death toll from Sunday's violent weather reached 18 in Missouri with the discovery of a child's body outside Pierce City on Tuesday, and rose to 15 in Tennessee after a man was found dead in a field near Jackson. The storms also were blamed for at least seven deaths in Kansas.
One person was still listed as missing in this southwestern Missouri town.
More showers and thunderstorms were likely in southwest Missouri during the afternoon Wednesday and again statewide on Thursday, the weather service said.
East of Pierce City and the other Ozarks towns struck by Sunday's twisters, a powerful storm that included a tornado hit the community of De Soto, south of St. Louis, causing widespread damage Tuesday.
The De Soto junior high school track team had just returned from an out-of-town meet when the storm reached its peak. About 25 team members and coaches went first to a teacher's lounge underneath the gym, then moved to the middle of the building when water started pouring in.
"Chairs started flying; everything started shaking. It was really scary," said 14-year-old Travis Shores.
After the students were moved, the gym was destroyed and crumbled into the teacher's lounge.
At the Missouri Capitol building in Jefferson City, lawmakers and visitors were evacuated briefly to the basement Tuesday, prompting 10-year-old Ashley McFarland to break into tears.
Lt. Gov. Joe Maxwell handed the fourth-grader his cell phone so she could talk to her father. "I've never been in a tornado before," said Ashley, on a class trip from Independence. "I was afraid that my family wasn't safe."
Tornadoes also were reported Tuesday in four counties of Illinois, killing two people and injuring at least seven others.
Tuesday's severe weather extended eastward to western North Carolina, where torrential rainfall - as much as 5 to 7 inches in Great Smoky Mountains National Park - caused mudslides and flooding. A flash flood warning was in effect Wednesday for the second day.
"This is about as bad as I've seen it," Mike Littlejohn said Tuesday as he watched flooding on Wright's Creek in the Cherokee Indian Reservation. "I've seen it flood, but I've not seen it this bad."
And in Texas, a storm that authorities suspect involved a tornado destroyed three homes in a rural area near Mineola during the night. No injuries were reported.
In Pierce City, state survey teams said some 40 downtown structures, including stone buildings dating back 130 years, were at the very least unstable and at worst subject to collapse.
"This we didn't need," Lawrence County, Mo., Sheriff Doug Seneker said of the latest rounds of stormy weather. "With all of the damaged buildings, the wind can easily knock some of them down."
A man makes a phone call after viewing the heavily damaged Mother Liberty CME Church in Jackson, Tenn., Tuesday, May 6, 2003. The church had stood at the site since 1893. The salvaging of homes and businesses and the restoration of services is taking place in towns smashed by tornadoes that roared through Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee.
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen views a business damaged Sunday by a tornado in Jackson, Tenn., as he walks the downtown area Tuesday, May 6, 2003. The salvaging of homes and businesses and the restoration of services is taking place in towns smashed by tornadoes that roared through Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee.
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen looks at some items burried under the brick at the heavily damaged Mother Liberty CME Church in Jackson, Tenn., Tuesday, May 6, 2003. The church had stood at the site since 1893. The salvaging of homes and businesses and the restoration of services is taking place in towns smashed by tornadoes that roared through Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee.
