Mo., Ill., Ky. clean up after storms

SPRINGFIELD, Mo., May 9 (UPI) -- Residents of Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky were cleaning up Saturday after a squall line of intense thunderstorms left four dead, officials said.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency after the Friday afternoon storms, activating the Missouri State Emergency Operations Center and other state resources to help with debris clean-up and power outages, the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader reported.

Nixon was scheduled to visit Fair Grove, Mo., High School, Saturday, which saw its roof torn off during the storm, lightly injuring four students, while more than 300 homes and businesses in Springfield were damaged, the newspaper said. A man died of a heart attack near Springfield when winds threw him and his wife into an open field, officials told CNN.

A Poplar Bluff, Ark., couple were killed when a tree fell on their car and one person was killed in Kentucky by the high winds, the broadcaster said.

Carbondale, Ill., was also hard-hit by the storms, with thousands of residents losing power and debris littering the streets, observers said. Two graduation ceremonies at Southern Illinois University were postponed. City Manager Allen Gill announced an overnight curfew as crews assessed the extent of the damage, The (Carbondale) Southern reported.