As a series of disastrous storms continue to ravage the Midwest, more fatalities are being reported.
On Wednesday evening, Michael Coleman, 62, was killed while driving through Prestonsburg, Kentucky, when 70 mph. winds launched a roof onto his and surrounding cars, local news outlet LEX 18 reported.
“It happened so quick I never would have thought there’d be that much damage,” Burke Franklin, a local who watched from the law office across the street, told the outlet.
The roof was part of a nearby local business, Hock Shop, and landed on four cars, including Coleman’s, trapping them underneath.
Onlookers ran out of nearby businesses to help before first responders arrived and cleared the area.
“We managed to get the windows broke. We checked on the individual. He was obviously deceased,” Lt. Celina Thomas of the Prestonsburg Fire Department told LEX 18. “At that point, we secured the scene.”
Coleman’s fiancée was also with him at the time but managed to escape the rubble uninjured.
“The man’s fiancée crawled herself out of the truck and we brought her into the office,” Sarah Lange Hyden, who works in the area, told LEX 18. “She looked really lucky. She didn’t have a scratch on her. She was obviously devastated. I think she said they were getting married this weekend, so it was really so horrible.”
The National Weather Service had a severe thunderstorm warning issued for the county at the time of his death, with nearly 800 homes without power at one point because of the storm damage, according to Mayor Les Stapleton via the outlet.
The Service deemed the storm a downburst — a strong downward current in conjunction with severe rain of thunderstorms — and reported damage throughout the community, including a number of other buildings downtown with minor roof damage.
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