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Powerful storms kill at least 18 across multiple states in southern U.S.Powerful storms killed at least 18 people and left a wide trail of destruction on Sunday across Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas after obliterating homes and destroying a truck stop where dozens sought shelter in a restroom during the latest deadly weather to strike the central U.S.
‘The devastation is pretty severe,’ says Texas sheriff where 7 killedThe Associated Press
· Posted: May 26, 2024 1:53 PM EDT | Last Updated: May 27
Destroyed homes are seen in Valley View, Texas, on Sunday after a deadly tornado rolled through the previous night. (Julio Cortez/The Associated Press)Powerful storms killed at least 18 people and left a wide trail of destruction on Sunday across Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas after obliterating homes and destroying a truck stop where dozens sought shelter in a restroom.
The storms inflicted their worst damage in a region spanning from north of Dallas to the northwest corner of Arkansas, and the system threatened to bring more violent weather to other parts of the Midwest later in the day. By Monday, forecasters said, the greatest risk would shift to the east, covering a broad swath of the country from Alabama to near New York City.
Eight people died in Arkansas, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed in a news conference Sunday evening. An emergency official said two of the deaths were attributed to the circumstances of the storm but not directly caused by weather, including a person who suffered a heart attack and another who was deprived of oxygen due to a loss of electricity.
Seven deaths were reported in Cooke County, Texas, near the Oklahoma border, where a tornado Saturday night plowed through a rural area near a mobile home park, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said at a news conference Sunday. The dead included two children, ages two and five. Three family members were found dead in one home, according to the county sheriff.
“It’s just a trail of debris left. The devastation is pretty severe,” Cooke County Sheriff Ray Sappington told The Associated Press.
Juana Landeros, who rode out the deadly tornado with her husband and nine-year-old son when it rolled through the previous night, salvages items from her destroyed home in Valley View on Sunday. (Julio Cortez/The Associated Press)About 100 people were injured and more than 200 homes and structures destroyed in Texas, Abbott said, sitting in front of a ravaged truck stop near the small agricultural community of Valley View. The area was among the hardest-hit, with winds reaching an estimated 217 km/h, officials said.
Hugo Parra, who lives in Farmers Branch, north of Dallas, said he rode out the storm with 40 to 50 people in the bathroom of the truck stop near Valley View. The storm sheared the roof and walls off the building, mangling metal beams and leaving battered cars in the parking lot.
“A firefighter came to check on us and he said, ‘You’re very lucky,'” Parra said. “The best way to describe this is the wind tried to rip us out of the bathrooms.”
Multiple people were transported to hospitals by ambulance and helicopter in Denton County, also north of Dallas.
Storms also killed two people in Oklahoma, where the injured included guests at an outdoor wedding, as well as one person in Kentucky.
Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency for Kentucky early Monday in a post on social media platform X, citing “multiple reports of wind damage and tornadoes.”
Active start to tornado seasonThe destruction continued a grim month of deadly severe weather in the middle of the country. Tornadoes in Iowa last week left at least five people dead and dozens injured. The deadly twisters have spawned during a historically bad season for tornadoes, at a time when climate change contributes to the severity of storms around the world. April had the second-highest number of tornadoes on record in the country.
Harold Brooks, a senior scientist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla., said a persistent pattern of warm, moist air is to blame for the string of tornadoes over the past two months.
People stand near a downed power line in Claremore, Okla., on Sunday. (Mike Simons/Tulsa World/The Associated Press)The severe weekend weather knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in the path of the storms.
By late Sunday, more than 80,000 customers in Arkansas were without power. In neighbouring Missouri, more than 90,000 were also without power. Texas reported 27,000 outages while 3,000 were reported in Oklahoma, according to the tracking website poweroutage.us.
Inaccessible roads and downed power lines in Oklahoma led officials in the town of Claremore, near Tulsa, to announce on social media that the city was “shut down” due to the damage.
The start of the Indianapolis 500 was delayed as a strong storm pushed into the area, forcing Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials to evacuate about 125,000 race fans. The video boards inside the speedway flashed that a severe thunderstorm warning was in effect as the band of rain, along with dangerous wind and lightning, approached from the west.
The system causing the latest severe weather was expected to move east over the rest of the Memorial Day weekend.
The risk of severe weather moves into North Carolina and Virginia on Monday, forecasters said.
