15-month-old Angel Babcock was found after storms killed her parents and two siblings and destroyed their mobile home
A toddler found in a field after violent tornadoes destroyed her home has died after being taken off life support, ending a hopeful tale for survivors in the American midwest and south.
The girl's death brings the overall toll from Friday's storms to 39 across five states. Rescuers were still going door to door in rural areas to rule out more victims.
Fifteen-month-old Angel Babcock of New Pekin, Indiana, was found after her family's mobile home was destroyed in Friday's storms. Her father, mother and two siblings were killed.
When Angel arrived at Kosair children's hospital in Louisville on Friday night she was opening her eyes – a hopeful sign, the chief nursing officer Cis Gruebbel said.
But on Saturday the swelling in her brain did not decrease, he said. As the day went on, her eyes stopping moving and there was no sign of brain activity. Medical staff told the family there was nothing more they could do. With extended family gathered to say goodbye, the family decided to end life support on Sunday.
Crews were working to return power and mobile phone service to damaged areas on Sunday, but it could be days before they are fully restored. In Indiana about 2,800 homes were without power, down from 8,000 in the hours after the storms, but in some hard-hit areas, such as Henryville, a substation and transmission lines need to be rebuilt, which could take up to a week. Almost 19,000 customers were without power in Kentucky, according to the state's Public Service Commission.
Phone companies were trying to help residents by setting up mobile charging and email stations so they could communicate. Portable towers were brought in to boost signal.
On Sunday, people gathered to worship, comb through piles of debris and learn what had happened to loved ones and friends, often without technology to help.
Mobile phone signal was patchy, the internet was down and electricity indefinitely interrupted. In many cases, word-of-mouth conversations replaced text messages, Facebook status updates and phone calls.
"It's horrible. It's things you take for granted that aren't there anymore," said Jack Cleveland, 50, a Census Bureau worker from Henryville.
Randy Mattingly, a 24-year-old mechanic, said he and his Henryville neighbours had passed on information by word of mouth to make sure people were OK. He said state police had quickly set up two gathering points for adults and children, at the church and at a nearby community centre.
At Sunday's mass at St Francis Xavier Catholic church in Henryville, Father Steve Schaftlein turned the church into an information exchange, asking the 100 or so in attendance to stand up and share what they knew.
Another round of storms earlier last week killed 13 people in the midwest and south. The tornadoes were the latest in a string of severe-weather episodes that have ravaged the American heartland in the past year.
Source: guardian.co.uk
