The Spokesman-Review
Spokane, Washington
Friday, June 8, 1984

AP - Tornadoes tore through the Midwest from Louisiana to Minnesota on Thursday, killing two people and injuring at least 24, while the threat of a mountain mudslide forced the evacuation of more than 200 people in the show-shrouded ski resort town of Aspen, Colo.

Meanwhile, heavy rain in Vermont set off flash floods that destroyed 11 homes and cut highwasy and utilities. Gov. Richard Snelling took a helicopter tour of his state's flooded areas and estimated danage will exceed $1 million.

Clusters of tornadoes spread over most of Iowa Thursday night. Police in Ringgold County in south-central Iowa said two people were killed, but could provide no details. At least eight others were reported injured by twisters in other parts of the state, and at least a half-dozen houses were destroyed or damaged, plus outbuildings and farm equipment.

A tornado also touched down in Albert Lea, Minn., Thursday night, slightly injuring 10 people and destroying several buildings including the city's ambulance garage.

No fatalities were reported.

Tornadoes also hit extreme northeastern Kansas on Thursday evening, injuring at least six people, and three of them were hospitalized. Twisters also destroyed an undetermined number of farm buildings and downed power lines.

The National Weather Service said funnel clouds were sighted at about a half-dozen places around Kansas, and a tornado touched down east of St. Joseph, Mo. early Thursday.

Earlier Thursday, a tornado slashed through the Louisiana community of Morequville early Thursday, ripping a 100-year-old house off its foundation, blowing apart a mobile home and downing trees.

Up to 13 inches of snow fell in the Colorado Rockies and other storms in the lower Mississippi Valley spawned tornadoes and funnel clouds in Missouri, Louisiana and Kansas.

Aspen and other Colorado towns in the Rockies were hit by a rain storm that turned to snow in the mountains late Wednesday and early Thursday, piling snow 8 inches deep in Aspen.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, September of 2009