From Texas to Michigan, a punishing month of tornadoes

Several of the storms proved deadly, including in Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Texas.

One Oklahoma town was hit for a second time this spring. A tornado up to 2 miles wide ripped through Barnsdall, Oklahoma, population 1,000, on May 6, tearing the roof off a nursing home and leaving one person dead.

In nearby Bartlesville, where power lines were toppled and injuries were reported, emergency crews rescued people who were trapped inside a Hampton Inn.

Tornadoes were spotted in more than 30 states in May, including Michigan. Residents near Kalamazoo were left to search through the wreckage of a mobile home park.

“We found homes in the roadway, we found homes in neighbors’ homes,” the county sheriff said. “We found large trees in homes. We found many vehicles that had been smashed by large trees or homes.”

A tornado tore through a Houston suburb. A dangerous mix of severe weather surprised the Houston area on May 16, with extreme winds knocking out windows in the city’s downtown and a tornado slicing through the suburb of Cypress. At least seven deaths were linked to the storms.

Rescue crews searched for victims in Greenfield, Iowa. After a tornado damaged the hospital and flattened houses in the rural Iowa town, locals set up a treatment area at the local lumberyard.

“It’s a completely different town now,” said Ray Sorensen, a local politician who helped pull one man from the wreckage.

Four people died from the storm in the Greenfield area, officials said. Another person died in a nearby county.

On Memorial Day weekend storms and tornadoes killed at least 23 people in the South and knocked out power for hundreds of thousands. In Texas, a tornado left at least seven people dead, including two children ages 2 and 5.

Although May is historically the country’s peak month for tornadoes, June has the second-most.