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dove to the floor.
• Then, he said, "The house exploded."
• Much of Brooks' roof was missing afterward, his wooden workshop was gone and linens hung across bare rafters. His two boats were damaged along with two cars and two trucks; the trampoline was in the neighbor's yard.
• "What can we do?" asked Brooks, who built the home.
• The system first swept across the nation's midsection Wednesday night and pummeled portions of Missouri. An EF-2 tornado damaged dozens of homes in the St. Louis suburb of Hazelwood, in this case bringing winds of 111 to 125 mph, the National Weather Service said Friday. More than 23,000 homes and businesses lost power. A utility worker for Ameren Missouri was electrocuted while helping to repair damage, the company said.
• In the upper Midwest over the past couple of days, heavy, wet snow, ice and wind left thousands of homes and businesses without power. Some rivers topped their banks in Michigan, forcing officials to close roads and some residents to evacuate their homes.
• In Wisconsin, authorities in Kenosha County on Friday closed a section of State Highway 75 as they kept an eye on a levee that was in danger of failing because of heavy rains.
• As South Dakota residents started to clean up after a major spring storm brought freezing rain and heavy snow that snapped tree branches, residents of North Dakota were bracing for another wallop.
• North Dakota could see freezing rain and as much as a foot of snow this weekend, the weather service said. Strong winds could accompany the storm, creating near-blizzard conditions and making travel hazardous.
• ___
• Associated Press writers Kristi Eaton in Sioux Falls, N.D.; Jim Suhr and Jim Salter in St. Louis; Jeff Amy in Jackson, Miss.; David Runk in Detroit; Kathy Wingard in Notasulga, Ala.; Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Ala., and Phillip Lucas and Norman Gomlak in Atlanta contributed to this report.
•

• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- A Pine Ridge man has been sentenced to prison for sexually abusing a minor.
• U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson announced Friday that 57-year-old Benjamin Samuel Leonard was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for engaging in a

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