Fierce thunderstorms with strong winds tore through Oklahoma, killing a truck driver and a family whose mobile home was flipped into a creek. One storm rolled in so fast, a couple in Nowata County had no time to reach a storm shelter on their property before wind picked up their mobile home, carried it about 100 yards and dropped the wreckage into a creek, sheriff's deputy Rick Harper said today. The mobile home "basically disintegrated," he said, and the couple and their grandchild were killed. Their bodies were found in the water after a two-hour search.
Missouri truck driver Jimmy King, 70, also was killed when wind flipped his semi onto a cement barrier wall, trapping him inside for nearly three hours near Afton in Ottawa County. In other storm news, a tornado swept out of the sea and hit a beachfront neighborhood in New York City today, hurling debris in the air, knocking out power and startling residents who once thought of twisters as a Midwestern phenomenon. Firefighters were still assessing the damage, but no serious injuries were reported and the area affected by the storm appeared small. (More storm stories.)