Storms, tornadoes rip through middle of U.S.

A husband and wife were killed when their pickup truck was hit by a twister.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) -- Severe storms swept through parts of Kansas and Missouri on Sunday, carrying winds that knocked over airplanes at the downtown Kansas City airport and ripped roofs off homes, businesses and buildings at the University of Kansas.
The storms followed powerful tornadoes that ripped across southern Missouri and southern Illinois during the night, destroying homes along a path of more than 20 miles and killing a married couple whose car was blown off the road, officials said.
Emergency management officials reported no deaths or injuries from the system that rolled across northeast Kansas and northwest Missouri later Sunday.
The National Weather Service had not confirmed whether the storm spawned tornados, but several weather spotters reported twisters in the area.
In Kansas, emergency management officials declared northeastern Douglas County a disaster after the storm hit Lawrence and the surrounding area about 8 a.m.
The University of Kansas campus was littered with trees, roof tiles and window glass after several buildings were damaged, authorities said.
The roof of the nondenominational Danforth Chapel, which has been the site for thousands of weddings on campus, was nearly torn off.
James Patterson, 23, was asleep in his upstairs Lawrence apartment when a sudden drop in pressure woke him about 8 a.m.
"It felt like I was in the tornado, if that's what it was," he said.
Heavy winds
At Kansas City International Airport, the storm lifted a cargo container off the airfield and blew it into several vehicles, authorities said. At the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport, some private airplanes tied down on the airfield were "spun around," spokesman Joe McBride said.
During the night, several people were injured as the storm system pounded the central Mississippi Valley with hailstones as big as softballs, high wind and torrential rain.
It was not immediately clear how many tornadoes struck the area straddling the Mississippi River from Missouri into Illinois. The twisters were part of a long line of stormy weather that stretched from the southern Plains up the Ohio Valley.
The worst damage was along a rural stretch of Highway 61 near St. Mary in Perry County, Mo., about 80 miles south of St. Louis, emergency management director Jack Lakenan said.
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