5 dead as tornadoes hit US A hospital in Creston, Iowa, had its windows blown out but patients were unharmed. The entire population of 300 in the town of Thurman, Iowa were evacuated. Three out of four homes there were damaged or destroyed. The storms were part of an exceptionally strong weather system that the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma had warned about for days. More extensive casualties were largely avoided due to early warnings, and because many of the tornadoes hit rural areas. The American Red Cross summoned volunteers to drive relief trucks from Oklahoma City to aid rescue crews in and around Woodward. Regional spokesman Rusty Surette said: "They're in chaos mode." He said trucks with cots, food, water and medical supplies would head to the area where a shelter was established in a church. Tornadoes have already caused 62 deaths in 2012 in the US Midwest and South. Last year was the deadliest for tornadoes in the United States for nearly 100 years. Around 550 people died in tornadoes in 2011, including 316 killed in an outbreak across five Southern states in April, and 161 people in Joplin, Missouri the following month.