Powerful storms killed at least 15 people and left significant damage Sunday across Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. The storms flattened homes and destroyed a truck stop where drivers had sheltered during the deadly bad weather that hit the central United States.
The storms inflicted their worst damage in a region stretching from northern Dallas to northwest Arkansas, and the system threatened to bring more severe weather to other parts of the Midwest later in the day.
By Monday, weather forecasts said, the greatest risk would shift east, covering a large swath of the country from Alabama to around New York City.
Seven deaths were reported in Cooke County, Texas, near the Oklahoma border, where a tornado swept through a rural area near a mobile home park Saturday evening, officials said.
The storms also killed two people and destroyed homes in Oklahoma, where the injured included guests at an outdoor wedding.
Tens of thousands of residents were left without power across the region.
The dead included two children, ages two and five, Cooke County Sheriff Ray Sappington said. The storms also destroyed a nearby truck stop where at least 60 people had rushed to seek shelter. Ray Sappington said there were no serious injuries.
The Texas deaths included three members of a family who were found in a home near the small community of Valley View, Sappington said.
Authorities said several people were transported to hospitals by ambulance and helicopter in Denton County, Texas, but did not immediately know the extent of the injuries.
“All that’s left is a trail of debris. The devastation is pretty bad,” Sheriff Sappington told the Associated Press.
The situation is evolving in Arkansas and Oklahoma
At least five people were reported killed in Arkansas, including a 26-year-old woman who was found dead outside a destroyed home in Olvey, a small community in Boone County, according to Daniel Bolen of the county’s emergency management office.
Another person died in the same Arkansas county. Melody Kwok, the county’s communications director, said several other people were injured and emergency responders were still responding to calls.
“We’re still in search and rescue right now,” she said. This is a rapidly evolving situation. »
Two other people died in Marion County, Arkansas.
Authorities also confirmed two deaths in Mayes County, Oklahoma. Details on the victims were not immediately available, said Mike Dunham, the county’s deputy director of emergency management.
A man was also killed Sunday in Louisville, Kentucky, when a tree fell on him, police said. Louisville Mayor Craig Greenburg confirmed the death was a storm-related death on social media.
The damage continued during a dark month marked by deadly bad weather in the center of the country.
Tornadoes that hit Iowa this week left at least five people dead and dozens injured. These deadly tornadoes appeared during a historically bad season for tornadoes, a time when climate change is contributing to the severity of storms around the world.
Authorities recorded the second highest number of tornadoes ever recorded in the country in April.
The extent of the damage observed
In Texas, a tornado crossed Denton County, north of Dallas, overturning tractor-trailers and halting traffic on Highway 35, according to spokeswoman Dawn Cobb. A shelter was opened in the rural town of Sanger.
Aerial images showed dozens of damaged homes, many without roofs and others reduced to rubble.
Residents woke up to overturned cars and collapsed garages. Some residents could be seen pacing and sorting through pieces of wood, assessing the damage. Nearby, neighbors sat on the foundation of a destroyed house.
At the height of the storms, more than 24,000 homes and businesses lost power in Oklahoma, according to the state’s office of emergency management. The office also reported extensive damage from baseball-sized hail and multiple injuries at an outdoor wedding in rural Woods County.
Meteorologists and authorities issued emergency alerts for citizens to take shelter as storms moved through the region overnight. “If you are in the path of this storm, run to shelter now!” », Published the office of the National Weather Service in Norman, on the social network X.
In Texas, Denton firefighters posted on social media that emergency crews near Dallas were responding to a marina due to “multiple victims, some trapped.”
Inaccessible roads and downed power lines in Oklahoma also led authorities in the town of Claremore, near Tulsa, to announce on social media that the town was “on lockdown” due to the damage.
April and May were busy months for tornadoes, particularly in the US Midwest. Iowa was hit hard last week, when a deadly tornado devastated Greenfield. Other storms caused flooding and wind damage elsewhere in the state.
The system causing the latest severe weather was expected to move eastward for the remainder of the weekend. The risk of severe weather shifts to North Carolina and Virginia on Monday, weather forecasters said.
