Midwest storms kill at least 14

DYERSBURG, Tenn. — Severe storms swept across the Midwest on Sunday, killing at least 14 people in Tennessee, Missouri and Illinois, officials said.

Local emergency officials reported eight deaths in west Tennessee's Dyer County, and three in neighboring Gibson County, said Kurt Pickering, spokesman for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. Details on the deaths weren't immediately available.

"This is a high fatality count," Pickering said. "The extent of the damage and the severity will probably not be very clear until we get the sun in the morning."

The storms, which also injured dozens, spawned at least a half-dozen tornadoes in northeast Arkansas, dropped large, damaging hail and sent thousands of concertgoers in Indianapolis scrambling for cover.

In Missouri, strong winds were blamed for the deaths of at least two people. A 42-year-old man was killed when winds knocked over his mobile home near Circle City, Stoddard County Sheriff Carl Hefner said.

Another man was killed when a tree fell on him as he walked along a trail in Castlewood State Park near Ballwin in St. Louis County, a spokeswoman for St. Louis County police told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

In Illinois, a man was killed when a clothing store in Fairview Heights, east of St. Louis, collapsed in high winds, police Capt. Nick Gailius said. Other people were injured, and emergency crews were searching the rubble for any additional victims, their progress slowed by a gas leak.

The National Weather Service reported that tornadoes were spotted in five counties in Tennessee's northwest corner, and officials said the storms caused extensive damage to buildings.

A tornado reported near the northeastern Arkansas town of Marmaduke sent at least 45 people to Arkansas Methodist Medical Center at Paragould with mostly minor injuries

It was one of a half-dozen tornadoes reported in the northeast part of the state.

Reports of hail and storm damage were widespread across northern and eastern Arkansas, but meteorologist Newton Skiles said the softball-sized hail fell mostly in scattered rural areas where there were few homes or vehicles to be damaged.

In Indianapolis, the storm hit with heavy wind and rain that shook downtown office towers as thousands of fans departed a free John Mellencamp concert that was part of the NCAA's Final Four weekend.