Tornado Rips Through US Southwest - 5 Dead

April 15, 2011 - TUSHKA, Okla. (AP) — A powerful storm system produced a tornado that killed two people in southeastern Oklahoma and three more in Arkansas before moving into the Deep South early Friday. The system produced a large tornado that cut through the tiny southeastern Oklahoma town of Tushka late Thursday, killing at least two people and injuring dozens more as it tore up roofs, shattered windows and tossed power lines and trees. Two people were killed in western Arkansas early Friday when a tree fell on a house, and a man died in central Arkansas when a tree was blown onto his recreational vehicle. The tornado that ripped through Tushka left the town of about 350 people some 120 miles southeast of Oklahoma City without a public school and forced many people to seek shelter with relatives, friends or churches serving as shelters. Semi-trailers and trees were scattered on the main highway, U.S. 69, and authorities closed off some roads because of downed power lines and trees. "It felt like a bomb," said Jennifer Buffington, who fled to a storm's cellar with her husband, Tony Stiles, and their seven children when the tornado sirens sounded. When the family emerged, they found the windows blown out of their house. The family sought shelter at First Baptist Church in nearby Atoka. "Everything in my house looks like shambles," said Buffington, 36, whose children range in age from 1 to 20. -AP