Hundreds of millions of people in the central and eastern U.S. are at risk of severe weather. AccuWeather's Tony Laubach chased a tornado that caused one fatality in Blodgett, Missouri, on May 16.
00:00One person died and two others were pulled from wreckage of a collapsed church in St. Louis.
00:06Now the greatest risk continues from the Mississippi Valley to the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys for the overall severe threat as we head into this evening.
00:13And that kicked off, as you can see right there, with that tornado that Tony brought us live from Blodgette.
00:17Yeah, that was pretty compelling footage, but sadly one home destroyed, or at least badly damaged.
00:22And the multi-day severe weather threat for millions continues to play out across the central United States and into the mid-Atlantic region.
00:28So our live coverage continues right now with Tony Laubach joining us live now from Matthews, Missouri.
00:34So Tony, that was an amazing tornado that you captured on camera.
00:40Yeah, Jeff, that was certainly a very intense event.
00:43You guys watched that live two hours ago as that tornado touched down to the west of I-55, crossed Interstate 55, and then moved just to the south of the town of Blodgette.
00:53Again, we put that tornado live on the network.
00:55We did have structural damage in that area.
00:57I apologize, it's taken me a couple hours.
00:59Obviously, was talking to some residents and some folks down in that way.
01:02Still getting some information.
01:03Unfortunately, everything's kind of sketchy at the moment in terms of whether or not there were any injuries or worse with that tornado.
01:08I have not heard of any yet.
01:09Hopefully, that is good news as it seemed to miss most of the towns.
01:13But that tornadic storm continued on to Paducah.
01:15Let's show you some of that video.
01:16This was the moment that it crossed Interstate 55.
01:19I was just to the south of this, probably less than a mile as it crossed the interstate.
01:24I had some lighter debris actually coming down around me, tree limbs, tree branches, leaves, that kind of thing.
01:30I went across just to the south of Blodgette.
01:33That's where I saw some of the damage there.
01:35My root actually cut off by a large tree that had come down on the road that I was on.
01:39Folks trying to catch that storm, I did the same, trying to work with it east.
01:43Unfortunately, the Mississippi River stands between us and any way out.
01:47So I was not able to actually get very far after that tornado came through.
01:51Talked to a resident there.
01:52She hid in her pantry.
01:54I had a big tree come down.
01:55Fortunately, she was south of the tornado.
01:57So it pushed the tree away from her house.
02:00Said it was one of the more scarier experiences of her life.
02:02Her daughter actually called her about 15 minutes ahead of time, gave her the alert,
02:06and she hid in the pantry for 15 minutes prior to that tornado.
02:09You'll probably hear from her at some point here later this evening.
02:12But that was a very intense tornado as it crossed.
02:14Again, we had that live as it was making its cross there on I-55.
02:19I am currently south right now in the town of Matthews with the intention to go back to the north.
02:24I wanted to get down here so I could get some service and get some information to you guys.
02:28There's another storm, unfortunately, that looks like it's going to cross probably just to the north of that area on I-55 within the next hour.
02:34So I'm going to head back north and get on that storm.
02:36We're also watching a storm that is working its way toward the Carbondale-SIU area.
02:40Old stomping grounds for me.
02:42It's where I got my graduate degree.
02:43So a lot of concern not only for the folks in this area but certainly personally as I've got friends and family in these storm areas as well.
02:50So paying very close attention to this area.
02:53Down here again, we've seen already several confirmed tornadoes.
02:56That actually, we put two of those tornadoes, Jeff, live on air.
02:59That first one that initially touched down that was a little bit further to the east before the big one came down on I-55.
03:04So I'm going to pack up, head back to the north and get on that storm that's working its way in.
03:08Again, probably in the same areas as we saw earlier.
03:11So unfortunately, people are probably going to be seeing multiple rounds of these tornadic storms here through the evening.
