At least 18 people, including two children, have been killed in powerful storms that ravaged Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in central United States. The tornadoes destroyed homes and left thousands in darkness.
Seven fatalities were reported in Cooke County in Texas, near the Oklahoma border, where a tornado on Saturday night ripped through a rural area near a mobile home park, officials said.
“It’s just a trail of debris left. The devastation is pretty severe,” said Cooke County Sheriff Ray Sappington.
The dead included two children, aged two and five, and three members of a family, the sheriff said.
Sappington said that the death toll was likely to rise, as search and rescue operations were underway for some people who remained missing on Sunday morning.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Sunday said that about 100 people were injured by the Saturday tornado, noting that the exact toll was “hard to tell with certainty”, reported CBS News.
More than 200 houses as well as other buildings were destroyed and more than 100 others were damaged, said Abbott. “I’d be shocked if those numbers do not increase,” added the Texas governor.
The tornado tore apart houses and businesses, flipped mobile homes and knocked down trees and power lines. Areas near the community of Valley View were especially hard-hit. Valley View is about an hour north of Dallas by car.
The tornado overturned vehicles and shut down a stretch of highway in the greater Dallas area.
Officials said that multiple people were transported to hospitals by ambulance and helicopter in Denton County, but the extent of their injuries was not immediately clear.
Valley View Police Chief Justin Stamps told CBS News on Sunday that the death toll in that community could be six.
Hugo Parra, who lives in Farmers Branch, north of Dallas, said that he rode out the storm with about 40-50 people in the bathroom of a gas station.
More than 470,000 people were without power in states stretching from Texas to Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky, according to a power outage website.
Storms also killed two persons and damaged houses in Oklahoma, where guests at an outdoor wedding were injured.
At least eight people, including a 26-year-old woman who was found dead outside a destroyed home in Olvey, a small community in Boone County, were reportedly killed in Arkansas, according to Daniel Bolen of the county’s emergency management office.
Three people died in Benton County of Arkansas, said the Arkansas Office of Emergency Management, speaking to CBS News.
Two people died in Oklahoma, said Michael Dunham, deputy director of the Mayes County Emergency Management, speaking to weather.com.
Dunham said that search and rescue efforts were continuing, with teams going house to house.
Widespread damage was reported in Claremore, where 23 people were injured — 19 of these injured, three with life-threatening injuries, were transported to local hospitals.
The city was closed to traffic until noon on Sunday, except for residents with identification.
At least one death has been confirmed in Kentucky, according to a statement on social media by Governor Andy Beshear.
Sunday looked like the hottest day with record-setting highs for late May forecasts for Austin, Brownsville, Dallas, and San Antonio, said National Weather Service meteorologist Zack Taylor.
Red Flag fire warnings were also in place in West Texas, all of New Mexico and parts of Oklahoma, Arizona, and Colorado.
Humidity was very low, under 10 per cent, and wind gusts of up to 60 mph were recorded.
The system causing the latest severe weather was expected to move east over the rest of the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
More severe storms were predicted in Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee. A tornado emergency was in effect in Kentucky since Sunday night. The risk of severe weather moves into North Carolina and Virginia on Monday, forecasters said.
