70 tornados strike, killing 4 across US plains

A huge spring storm unfurled more than 70 tornados across six American states, killing four people and injuring more than a dozen, US media reported today.
The succession of tornados, which caused deaths in Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas and damage in Illinois, Kansas and Nebraska, began on Wednesday evening and continued until yesterday afternoon, hurling down snow, rain and outsized hailstones across a broad belt of American plains.
In Holly, a town of 1,500 people in southeastern Colorado, a woman was killed when she and two children were thrown into a tree after a tornado more than 200m (700ft) across zigzagged its way across the town, levelling houses, killing cattle and tearing up trees. Rosemary Rosales, 28, died in hospital and 11 other people were treated for injuries.
Another fatal twister struck Beaver County, in western Oklahoma. Residents of the rural community of Elmwood described a tornado hauling across the ground for more than 20 minutes. The storm sirens were sounded but could not save Vance and Barbra Woodbury, whose house was destroyed.
''There was no house left,'' Dixie Parker, a state emergency official told The New York Times. ''It was demolished, and we found them in the field. One was still alive, the husband. He passed away just before the ambulance got there.''
A woman who took refuge in her bathtub when the tornado descended told ABC News: "We were sitting in the living room watching TV. And all of a sudden, the power went out, and it wasn't like thunder that comes and goes. It was a solid rumble. And I looked at Ralph and we said, 'That's a tornado sound.'
"So we ran for the inside bathroom and jumped in the tub. And - while we were in there, we could hear the wind, turning over and over, and going over the house. And I also could hear water being sucked through the pipes because of air pressure."
Over the state line to the south, storms battered the Texas Panhandle, injuring three people and killing an oilfield worker, Monte Ford, 53, whose trailer home was overturned outside Amarillo, the largest city in the region. Rain and hail were thrown across the state and 19in of snow were reported to have fallen in Carbon County, Wyoming, around 500 miles away.
The National Weather Service recorded 67 tornados in its storm report for Wednesday and a further 4 yesterday. The final serious tornado struck in Oklahoma City, critically injuring two people and damaging 50 buildings.
"An 18-wheeler was blown over, eight to 10 cars are in a ditch, power poles are broken, trees are overturned, there's heavy roof damage, outbuildings destroyed," said Ty Judd, a National Weather Service meteorologist. "We can safely call that a tornado."