Rare winter tornadoes in America's Midwest kill 2, flatten houses

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A freak cluster of January tornadoes blew across America's unseasonably warm Midwest, killing two people, demolishing houses and knocking a railroad locomotive off its tracks. More thunderstorms were possible Tuesday. Record high temperatures were reported across wide areas of the United States on Monday. Tornadoes were reported or suspected in southwest Missouri, southeastern Wisconsin, Arkansas, Illinois and Oklahoma. Two people were killed in Missouri. Al Ost said he "prayed like a sissy" as he fled to the basement of his house in Boone County, Illinois. The storm damaged a barn on his property, he told the Rockford Register Star. Hardest hit was a subdivision in Wheatland, about 80.5 kilometers southwest of Milwaukee, where at least 55 homes were damaged, Kenosha County sheriff's Lt. Paul Falduto said Tuesday morning. "With the light of day it always looks worse than at night," Falduto said.