Wild weather batters the US

Disaster News Network: Tornadoes damaged homes from Kansas to Maryland while flooding forced more than 1,000 concertgoers to abandon their cars and residents in Utah filled sandbags to help keep water and mud out of their homes this weekend -- as the first day of summer and a wild weekend of severe weather came to a close.

Late Sunday, tornado warnings were still posted in the Midwest and heavy rain and winds pelted portions of New England. The worst of the rain hit western Michigan Friday night. Mark Dekelsy of the National Weather Service told reporters that the five to eight inches of rain that fell near Holland, MI, Friday is typically seen just once a century.

The rain washed out roads, flooded homes and caused other damage. Local Emergency Management officials said they expect to ask for a federal disaster declaration. In Ionia County, MI, more than a thousand concertgoers had to abandon their cars when the Grand River blocked park exits. Emergency officials said about 100 people stayed in a nearby shelter Saturday night. Emergency officials said Sunday it might be Wednesday before all of the cars can be removed from the local fairgrounds….

A severe thunderstorm from 1982, from NOAA's wayback machine