BAXTER SPRINGS, Kan. (AP) - A National Weather Service meteorologist says the tornado that destroyed more than 100 homes and businesses and hurt 25 people in Baxter Springs, Kan., dropped so quickly that sirens were activated only a minute or two before the twister hit.
Meteorologist Bill Davis in Springfield, Mo., says the same thing happened in Quapaw, Okla., where at least one person was killed late Sunday afternoon. Davis called it a worst-case scenario in which a tornado forms right in a populated area.
He says the E-F2 tornado that hit Baxter Springs spun up so fast that the weather service had barely gotten a tornado warning out when it struck.
The weather service continued issuing tornado warnings after the storm left Baxter Springs, but the tornado didn’t touch down again.
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