LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas.- A violent storm with strong winds and rain swept across the southern and midwestern United States east on Saturday, leaving so far 26 dead and dozens injuredaccording to authorities and the media.
At least five people died in Arkansas, according to authorities, as first responders searched through the rubble for more possible victims after the tornadoes that hit the state on Friday. They also reported four deaths in Illinois and three in Indiana. Meanwhile, the Department of Health of Tennessee confirmed seven deaths related to the weather in McNairy County, on the Mississippi border.
The director of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, Patrick Sheehan, said the number of injuries and the number of structures damaged in several counties had not yet been determined.
Fox News also reported one death in Alabama and another in Mississippi, bringing the total number of fatalities to 26.
In the case of Illinois, three people died in Crawford County after a residential structure collapsedthe state Emergency Management Agency said. These people join the 50-year-old man who died in Belvidere, a city in northern Illinois, after the roof of a theater with 260 people inside collapsed.
Dan Zaccard, a senior Boone County emergency management official, said Saturday that the incident left 40 wounded. The audience at the city’s Apollo Theater was attending a concert by the heavy metal group Morbid Angel, which was performing its “Tour del terror”.
The National Weather Service warned Saturday of thunderstorms moving across the eastern third of the United States that would likely cause power outages and downed trees by winds with gusts of more than 100 km/h.
Tornadoes ripped roofs and walls off many Arkansas buildings, flipped over vehicles and downed trees and power lines in Little Rock and large areas east and northeast of the state capital, authorities said.
On Friday, an extreme spring storm hit much of the United States, threatening storms and tornadoes across the Midwest from Texas to the Great Lakes.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Saturday that there was Five confirmed deaths in the state. “Right now, we have five confirmed fatalities. We have a couple of others that have been reported, but we don’t have confirmation from the local police on the ground. We’re waiting. But right now, across the state, we have five confirmed fatalities,” he stated.
Four of the Arkansas victims were registered in Wynne, about 100 miles east of Little Rock, Cross County Coroner Eli Long said. One person died and more than 50 were hospitalized in North Little Rock, he told The Washington Post Madeline Roberts, Pulaski County spokeswoman.
The president of United States, Joe Biden, spoke with Huckabee Sanders and the mayors of Little Rock and Wynne, the White House said in a statement. He also spoke with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Deanne Criswell.
Huckabee Sanders said that Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, in phone calls Saturday, offered the support of the federal government. “Whatever Arkansas needs, we’ve been assured that those resources will be here and on the ground,” he told a news conference.
In Sullivan County, Indiana, three people were killed, Indiana State Police Sgt. Matt Ames said. A state of emergency has been declared in the affected areas, Sheriff Jason Bobbitt said on Facebook.
Fox News, citing Fox Weather, reported that a tornado killed one person in Madison County, Alabama, and another person was killed during a storm in Pontotoc County, Mississippi.
The events came a week after a swarm of thunderstorms unleashed a deadly tornado that devastated the town of Rolling Fork, Mississippi, destroying many of the community’s 400 homes and killing 26 people.
Archyde.com Agency
THE NATION