Tornadoes kill at least 5 in Texas, Arkansas

Associated Press

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.

Emergency responders searched through splintered wreckage Monday after a line of tornadoes battered several small communities in Texas and Arkansas, killing at least five people, including a young couple who died trying to shield their daughter from the storm.

Three people were still missing in a rural East Texas town. Scores of others were hurt, some critically.

The couple, both in their late 20s, died when a twister hit their mobile home late Sunday in the Arkansas town of Nashville.

Michael and Melissa Mooneyhan were trying to protect their daughter when the parents’ trailer flipped over and “exploded,” Howard County Coroner John Gray said.

“I had wondered if they were in an enclosed space like a hallway or a bathroom just sheltering the little girl when it hit,” Gray said. “It’s a miracle that little girl survived.”

The girl, who is about 18 months old, was taken to the hospital and later released to relatives.

The two parents met when they were teenagers attending different high schools and were married in April 2004, before they even graduated.

Polly McCammack, who also lives in Nashville, is Melissa’s third cousin. A week ago, she said, the close-knit family lost their grandmother who “practically raised” Melissa and her siblings.

“The family has been hit hard. They’re strong, but it’s almost like to the point you’re afraid to breathe,” McCammack said.

Michael Mooneyhan worked in the deli department of the local Walmart. Melissa was a stay-at-home mom doting on their daughter.

“That baby was definitely their life. They considered her their greatest blessing. You couldn’t find two parents who loved a child more,” McCammack said. “She’s going to grow up knowing family and knowing love.”

Family members went to the site of the destroyed home looking for mementos, toys and other things they could salvage for the little girl, McCammack said.

“That poor little girl is never going to know them,” he said. “But she’s young enough that she’ll never remember what happened.”

National Weather Service investigators confirmed a tornado with a preliminary EF2 rating and winds estimated at 125 mph touched down in Nashville, meteorologist Travis Washington said.

The county’s tornado sirens were sounded for so long during Sunday’s first tornado warning that the battery was drained, Howard County Emergency Management Coordinator Sonny Raulerson said.

When a second warning was issued for about 16 miles south of Nashville, the sirens could not be sounded, Raulerson said.

In neighboring Texas, a tornado pummeled the small city of Van, damaging or destroying 50 to 100 homes and the local schools, according to Chuck Allen, fire marshal and emergency management coordinator for Van Zandt County.