BERTHOUD, Colo. — Violent storms across Colorado have swirled into tornadoes that destroyed homes, popped open a sinkhole that swallowed a police cruiser and dropped so much hail on a Denver neighborhood that residents had to dig out of waist-deep ice with shovels.

Forecasters warned Friday that more severe weather and flooding was on the way. The National Weather Service placed the eastern half of the state under a tornado watch and posted flood advisories in the north. No serious injuries have been reported from the storms that raked areas from Fort Collins in the north to Pueblo, nearly 180 miles south.

As lightning flickered from horizon to horizon and heavy rain pelted Denver overnight, Sgt. Greg Miller of the Sheridan police department drove his SUV into a 15-foot-deep, 20-foot-wide sinkhole that he couldn’t see on a suburban street.

Miller crawled through a window and to the vehicle’s roof, then up to the pavement.

“I’m glad it happened to me and to no one else,” Miller, who wasn’t hurt, told Denver’s KMGH-TV. A crane pulled the cruiser out Friday afternoon.

In one Denver neighborhood, residents came outside to find 3-foot-deep piles of hail. The marbles of ice blanketed the street like snow, and crews used bucket-loaders to clear the road.

Tornadoes damaged at least six homes near Simla, on Colorado’s eastern plains, Elbert County officials said.


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