Tornadoes kill 6 in U.S. Midwest

Last Updated: Friday, December 31, 2010 | 4:17 PM ET

The Associated Press

Tornadoes fuelled by unusually warm winter air sliced through parts of the U.S. South and Midwest on Friday, killing at least six people, injuring dozens of others and knocking out power to thousands of homes and businesses.

Chris Sizemore describes being thrown from his home by a tornado that tore through Cincinnati, Ark., early Friday. (April L. Brown/Associated Press)

Three people died in Cincinnati, a northwestern Arkansas hamlet of about 100 residents located five kilometres from the Oklahoma border, and a sheriff's dispatcher said there were "lots of injuries" after a twister touched down just before sunrise.

Tornadoes were also reported near St. Louis, and three people were reported dead in a violent storm in south-central Missouri, local authorities said.

"It sucked me out of my house and carried me across the road and dropped me," Chris Sizemore of Cincinnati said in an interview with The Associated Press.

"I was Superman for a while.… You're just free-floating through the air. Trees are knocking you and smacking you down."

The U.S. National Weather Service said a storm that may have been a tornado destroyed three mobile homes and damaged other property in Missouri's Dent County.

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