Tornado deaths prove danger of staying in cars

Two people were killed in Georgia, where meteorologists said at least six tornadoes touched down. One struck McIntosh County's emergency management center, destroying the fire trucks and ambulances inside. Another man was killed in northern Alabama when his truck was struck by a falling tree limb as he was surveying storm damage.

According to data from the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center, 49 of the 705 deaths -or about 7 percent -attributed to tornadoes from 1997 to 2007 were people who were in vehicles when the storm struck.

"They can cover more ground than you can in your car, so unless you know you are moving away from the tornado the best thing you can do is find a strong structure," said Andy Foster, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

The twister that struck Seneca and surrounding Newton County was moving at 50 mph to 60 mph, Foster said. One car was found a half-mile from the tornado track.

In Newton County alone, 200 people were treated for injuries at hospitals, 200 buildings were destroyed and another 200 structures suffered major damage, said Gary Roark, the county emergency management director.

Authorities were still piecing together how some of the other victims died over the weekend. But the Missouri Highway Patrol said one person was killed when her vehicle was blown off the same road where the Rountree family died.

In Picher, a man and a woman died when their car was blown into a lagoon. The body of another man from the car wound up in a nearby tree. A 13-year-old girl who was riding in the car was injured.

Fire Chief Jeff Reeves said they were not trying to outrun the twister.

"I think they were actually trying to get to a family member's house on the south side of town to help them and they just didn't make it over," Reeves said.

Cars have the same problem as mobile homes in a storm: they aren't anchored to the ground, so winds can get underneath them. Winds of less than 100 mph can flip a car, said Rick Smith, warning coordination meteorologist with the weather service.