CARUTHERSVILLE, Mo. – Tornadoes and strong winds have killed at least three people in Missouri and virtually closed down an entire city, authorities said Monday.
Pemiscot County dispatcher Dorothy Hale said one person was confirmed dead after a tornado struck a rural home in the Beering area Sunday night.
"It destroyed just about everything" in nearby Caruthersville, the Pemiscot County seat, Hale said.
Caruthersville Mayor Diane Sayre said there were no known fatalities in the city, but search and rescue operations continue. The city of 6,700 has no power or water, and has suffered "significant damage," she said.
A state of emergency was declared in Caruthersville late Sunday.
Randal Lee, a Sheriff's Department dispatcher, said a tornado wiped out part of the town.
"A tornado hit, but we're not sure what size," Lee said.
The city expected to provide details at an 8 a.m. briefing Monday.
Earlier, a 42-year-old man died when straight-line winds knocked over his mobile home near Circle City in Stoddard County, authorities said.
St. Louis County police reported a man was killed when a tree fell on him as he walked along a trail in Castlewood State Park near Ballwin.
In Fairview Heights, a St. Louis suburb about 15 miles east of the city in Illinois, a fourth man was killed when part of the roof at a clothing store collapsed onto him. He was identified as Delancy Moore, 54, of East St. Louis, former jail superintendent of the St. Clair County Sheriff's Department.
Corey Chaskelson, in the National Weather Service office at Memphis, Tenn., said two tornadoes were reported south of the Dunklin County Airport in the Missouri Bootheel.
The storm system, which also spawned at least a half-dozen tornadoes in northeast Arkansas before moving into Illinois, dropped large, damaging hail and caused widespread tree and power line damage, the weather service said.
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