ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Tornadoes ripping through the St. Louis area Friday night caused at least two deaths, including at least one when an Amazon facility east of the city in Illinois was heavily damaged.
The roof of the Amazon facility in Edwardsville, Illinois, was ripped off and a wall about the length of a football field collapsed, Police Chief Mike Fillback told reporters Saturday morning.
A large tornado was reported in the Edwardsville area at about the time the building was damaged.
National Weather Service workers themselves had to take shelter as another tornado passed near their office in Weldon Spring, Missouri, about 30 miles west of St. Louis.
That twister was suspected of destroying several homes in the towns of New Melle and Defiance, leaving at least three people injured, one of them hospitalized with serious injuries.
Mark Borgmann told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch [stltoday.com] that tornado killed his mother and injured his father overnight.
His parents, Ollie and Vernon Borgmann, both 84, were at home when the tornado hit.
The tornado swept his parents' single-story home and a neighbor's house off their foundations, scattering debris at least a half-mile.
A tornado also was reported in Pemiscot County in the Bootheel region near Hayti, but the sheriff's office said there were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries.
