tornado damage in Chetek, Wisconsin
© Dan Reiland/The Eau Claire Leader-Telegram via APFirefighters work the site of the damage after a tornado ripped through Prairie Lake Estates trailer home park, just north of Chetek, Wis., Tuesday, May 16, 2017.
At least two people were killed as a devastating storm system stretching from Texas to the Canadian border whipped up tornadoes, heavy rain and hail.

A tornado flattened several homes in a subdivision south of Elk City, Okla., about 7:15 p.m., about 110 miles west of A sofa sits on damaged trees after a tornado ripped through Prairie

One person was found dead in the storm's aftermath, fire officials said.

"A lot of tornado damage" was reported in the subdivision and surrounding rural area.

Strong winds brought down utility poles and lines, said Beckham County Emergency Management Director Lonnie Risenhoover. He added that cattle had been killed.

It's unclear how many people were injured during the storm.

Another tornado struck a rural area in western Oklahoma, leaving damage in its wake but no immediate reports of injuries.


Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald in Wisconsin told several media that a tornado damaged the Prairie Lakes Estates trailer park north of Chetek. The National Weather Service reported the tornado touched down in the area just after 5:30 p.m.

Helicopter video from WCCO-TV and KARE-TV shows extensive damage at the trailer park, with several homes reduced to rubble.

"It's a mess," Fitzgerald told the Leader-Telegram of Eau Claire. "It's pretty bad. We have at least one deceased so far and we're still in a search pattern."

Fitzgerald described the scene to KMSP-TV as "total devastation" and said first responders could hear people yelling for help when they arrived. He said at least one child was among the injured.

Chetek is about 110 miles northeast of Minneapolis/St. Paul, and about 40 miles north of Eau Claire.

Chetek Mayor Jeff Martin told KSTP-TV that numerous emergency vehicles went to the trailer park. He estimated the park had around 50 homes.

Devin Feuerhelm told KMSP-TV that his sister, Lenna Samuelson, lives in the park with her two daughters, Ashley and Brenna. He said her sister also had her 2-month-old grandson, Nolan, in the home when the storm hit, and they had nowhere to go but the bathtub.

Amazingly, Nolan escaped with just a couple of scratches, he said. Samuelson's daughters suffered minor injuries, and the mother suffered a gash on her head, but he said all are expected to be fine.

While their home was flattened, the SUV next to it was untouched.

A mobile home is a particularly dangerous place to be during a tornado, according to the National Weather Service. The Storm Prediction Center, which specializes in forecasting and gathering data on tornadoes, says that high winds during a tornado can rip a mobile home without a foundation from its moorings. In 2011, when devastating tornadoes struck in Joplin, Missouri, and in Alabama and Mississippi, 111 of the 551 people killed nationwide in tornadoes, or 20 percent, were in mobile homes, according to the Storm Prediction Center website.

The Wisconsin tornado was part of a huge swath of the Plains and Upper Midwest threatened with severe weather. The area stretches from the Texas Panhandle through Oklahoma, western Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa into Minnesota and Wisconsin.

By evening, the National Weather Service listed nearly 20 reports of tornadoes from Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Wisconsin, although some of those could be multiple reports of the same tornado.

AP