A week after the violent tornado that killed 25 people in Mississippi, a new natural disaster of this type, accompanied by violent storms, has come to hit the United States since Friday, killing at least 18 people in the country.
Par –
Yesterday at 10:05 | updated at 22:03
At least 5 people were killed on Friday by a powerful tornado that swept through the state of Arkansas (southern United States), while at least 6 others died in the north and central east of the country under the blow of severe thunderstorms in Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Thirty people are also hospitalized.
Later in the evening on Saturday, the state of Tennessee also deplored seven deaths due to severe weather, all of which occurred in McNairy County, east of Memphis.
The northeast of the country was also preparing for possible powerful thunderstorms on Saturday, including Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York State, with gusts of up to 95 km / h.
The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued tornado warnings for parts of neighboring states like Tennessee, Illinois, Kentucky and Iowa. The tornado left in its wake a spectacle of desolation with overturned cars, huge uprooted trees, broken telephone poles and gutted houses.
Thousands of homes without electricity
In the North of the country, in the small town of Belvidere, west of Chicago in the State of Illinois, part of the roof and the facade of the Apollo Theater collapsed during the passage of a violent storm. A concert by a heavy metal band was underway, according to local media. At least 600,000 American homes were without electricity on Saturday, according to the American site Poweroutage.
Tornadoes, meteorological phenomena as impressive as they are difficult to predict, are common in the United States, especially in the center and south of the country.
A week ago, a tornado swept through Mississippi, killing 25 people and causing immense property damage.
President Joe Biden visited the site on Friday. In December 2021, about 80 people lost their lives after tornadoes hit Kentucky.