The death toll from Cyclone Aila reached 40 yesterday after it lashed eastern India and Bangladesh and stranded thousands in their flooded villages.
The storm destroyed nearly 3000 thatched and mud houses and toppled trees in nearly 300 villages across India’s West Bengal state, said state minister Kanti Ganguly.
Emergency teams on Sunday were assessing damage from deadly storms that devastated parts of Missouri, Kentucky and West Virginia this weekend — even as the threat of more severe weather continued.
The storm that tore through Madison County, Kentucky, on Friday was a category EF-3 tornado, the National Weather Service said Sunday.
An EF-3 is the third-strongest category of tornado, with winds of 136 to 165 mph, strong enough to destroy large buildings and lift cars off the ground.
A tornado damaged homes and businesses and knocked down power lines Tuesday afternoon as severe storms moved through central Oklahoma. No serious injuries were reported.
Six homes were damaged or destroyed near Edmond, a suburb north of Oklahoma City.
“We are trying to dodge our storms and keep responders safe, so it is taking some time to get confirmation of damages,” city spokeswoman Claudia Deakins said. Read more
Up to 200 motorists found themselves trapped on a road in Devon last night after three inches of snow fell in an hour.
Firefighters were called to a “major incident” on the A38 near Exeter at around 9pm, after a line of cars became stuck on Telegraph Hill in blizzard conditions. As the snow continued unabated, many drivers were forced to abandon their vehicles and seek refuge for the night in nearby hotels. Around two feet of snow had fallen by midnight, leaving other roads in the vicinity equally impassable.
One of the motorists, Sue Bullock, told how she had been trapped in her car for more than three hours. She said: “We are sitting here just waiting for someone to rescue us.”
Snow and harsh winter conditions were causing disruption across the UK today, with some councils warning that salt and grit supplies were running low.
Further problems were expected for public transport, schools and businesses with severe weather warnings in place in south Wales, north Devon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire today as snow continued to fall.
Forecasters said the worst of the weather was likely to be in the Midlands with as much as 10cm (4in) of snow, however the south and west of England and Wales ground to a halt today after waking up to their heaviest falls of snow this week.
At least eight people have been killed by a tornado which tore into a town in the US state of Oklahoma.
The tornado swept through a swathe of the town of Lone Grove on Tuesday evening, reports said. Local reports said up to 15 people had died. Read more
