Tornado hits Holly, Colorado without warning

March 29, 2007

Holly, Colorado - A young woman died early Thursday after a tornado slammed her and her 3-year-old daughter into a tree as it roared through the heart of the small southeastern Colorado town of Holly Wednesday evening.

The tornado that hit Holly, a town of about 1,000 residents, has destroyed at least five homes.

The tornado ripped across the plains town on the Kansas border 235 miles southeast of Denver at about 8 p.m.

Emergency responders said they believe everyone has been accounted for.

Linda Rice of the state Department of Local Affairs said 30 homes were severely damaged.

No tornado sirens sounded in the remote Colorado town, located six miles from the Kansas state line "on the fringe of weather radar systems," according to a news release from Prowers County Administrator Linda Fairbairn.