USA TODAY - Storms leave death, destruction in central USA

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From staff and wire reports

Severe weather battered the nation's midsection Friday killing at least seven people in Arkansas, injuring dozens others and damaging hundreds of homes and businesses.

In the last 24 hours, tornadoes, hail and hurricane-force winds ripped through Arkansas and seven other states, including Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Illinois, South Dakota and Kansas.

Police said a 15-year-old girl was killed Friday when a tree fell through a bedroom where she was sleeping at her home in Siloam Springs in north Arkansas. Arkansas Department of Emergency Management spokesman Tommy Jackson also confirmed two deaths in Conway County; three in Van Buren County; and one death in Pulaski County.

WEATHER GUYS BLOG: Tornado season peaks in MayLOCAL COVERAGE: KTHV-TV, Little Rock

The agency also reported 13 injuries.The storms damaged property and blew out electric service to nearly 6,000 homes and businesses.

In Damascus, Ark., property damage was extensive.

Randy Payne, 38, hid in a hallway at his aunt and uncle's house.

"It sounded like all hell was breaking loose," Payne said.

Hurricane-force winds, hail and heavy rain moved through Missouri leaving hundreds of homes and businesses damaged.

Fire officials say several people were injured in the storms late Thursday and early Friday.

Authorities in the Kansas City area say the worst damage is in the city's northern and eastern suburbs. The National Weather Service reported that winds reached 80 mph.

Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser said Friday that 100 homes suffered significant damage in the city alone.

In northeast Kansas City, trees were knocked from their roots and laying along the roads and in ditches.

Dozens of homes had chunks of their roofs missing. Some had their fences toppled. Police blocked off roads surrounding damaged neighborhoods Friday.

At least three tornadoes raked across central and northern Oklahoma, including one in Osage County near Tulsa that was an estimated 100 yards wide.

In Owasso, also near Tulsa, straight-line winds destroyed the $4.7 million TownPlace Suites Hotel, authorities said.

In other parts of the country a river that flooded parts of northern Maine dropped much faster than expected, allowing residents who fled their homes to return and assess the damage, officials said Friday.

The St. John River dipped below flood stage Friday, just two days after upward of 1,000 people were evacuated as the river reached the highest levels ever recorded. As many as 140 area homes were flooded.

The river's drop came as Gov. John Baldacci traveled to the region Friday for his second visit to get a firsthand look and talk to local residents.

A team from the Maine Department of Transportation and an inspector from Canada planned to get their first look at the International Bridge between Fort Kent and Clair, New Brunswick, Saturday morning to make sure that the two-lane bridge wasn?t moved from its supports by the fast-moving waters, said Mark Latti, a Maine transportation agency spokesman.

Meanwhile, three Texans were charged Thursday with starting a fire that has charred more than 2,000 acres near Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.

The two men and a woman were camping Tuesday in the Kaibab National Forest when they left their campfire unattended after running out of water, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Flagstaff.

A second straight day of fierce wind Thursday hampered firefighters battling a blaze in central New Mexico's Manzano Mountains.

Fire officials estimated the acreage at 13,000, or about 20 square miles, by Thursday night. Peter D'Aquanni, a U.S. Forest Service public information officer, said crews tried to go in several times to get a count of what had been destroyed but were pushed back each time. Wind kept air drops of water and fire retardant grounded Thursday.

"We're pretty much going to have a carbon copy of yesterday again today," D'Aquanni said Thursday. Conditions are expected to be the same Friday, he said.

At least seven wildfires, two of which consumed more than 20,000 acres each, burned across Texas on Thursday, threatening homes, a wind farm and a $10 million vineyard, officials said.

A 21,000-acre blaze in western Texas neared a $280 million wind farm and an 800-acre vineyard, said Jeanne Eastham, a spokeswoman for the Texas Forest Service. The service had a mandatory evacuation for one ranch in the fire's path.

Cities along the Mississippi River valley are expected to get bad storms Friday, according to Tom Moore, lead meteorologist at The Weather Channel.

Moore said some areas along the Black Hills in South Dakota could receive up to 3 feet of snow and Rapid City may get up to a foot.

"It should be an active day from the Great Lakes all the way down," Moore said.

The storm system should ease up by Saturday, but will continue pouring rain from New York to the Southeast. And that, Moore said, could make for a soggy day at the Kentucky Derby.

"It's going to rain there in the morning for sure," Moore said. "But it should break up by midday."

Contributing: Alan Gomez in McLean, Va.; Associated Press

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