Important Takeaways:
- Tornados leave trail of destruction as 4 injured, hundreds of homes damaged
- There were 83 reports of tornadoes across five states in Friday’s storms.
- The multi-day tornado outbreak continued Saturday, with powerful storms expected from Texas to the Great Lakes.
- There is a chance for strong long-track tornadoes as well as very large hail up to 3 inches in diameter and thunderstorm winds up to 80 mph.
- In Iowa, four people were injured Friday and approximately 120 structures were damaged after severe weather…
- Severe damage was also reported across eastern Nebraska, including Douglas County, where hundreds of homes were damaged in the Omaha area Friday.
- One tornado emergency was issued for Knox City, Texas, where a large and damaging tornado was reported near the town. Baseball-sized hail was also reported with this tornadic storm.
- Damaging winds, huge hail, and long-track tornadoes are all in the cards, especially in Kansas, Oklahoma and northeast Texas. Overall, there is a severe weather threat stretching across the central U.S. from Canada to Mexico.
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By Keith Coffman
DENVER (Reuters) – A Texas truck driver who police say caused a fiery multi-vehicle crash near Denver last week that killed four people and injured four was charged on Friday with 40 criminal counts including vehicular manslaughter, prosecutors said.
Police in Lakewood, Colorado said they arrested 23-year-old Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos after he lost control of his tractor-trailer truck during the evening rush hour on April 25 and caused a crash on Interstate 70 that involved at least 28 vehicles.
The district attorney for Jefferson County, where the crash took place, charged Aguilera-Mederos with 40 counts on Friday, including four counts of vehicular homicide, six of first-degree assault and 24 of attempted first-degree assault.
The tractor-trailer, which was carrying lumber, rammed into several cars, causing a pile-up that became a raging inferno, authorities said. The four men who died were all single occupants in their vehicles, according to a local TV station.
“The carnage was significant,” police spokesman Ty Countryman said at the time. “Just unbelievable.”
There was no initial indication that Aguilera-Mederos intentionally caused the crash, or that he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, Countryman said.
(Reporting by Keith Coffman in Denver; Additional reporting by Gabriella Borter in New York; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
