The latest wave of deadly weather to hit the central U.S. left at least 11 people dead in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas on Sunday as powerful storms destroyed homes and truck stops where drivers had taken refuge.
Seven people were reported dead in Cook County, Texas, near the Oklahoma border, after a tornado struck a rural area near a mobile home park on Saturday night, authorities said. The storm also caused damage in Oklahoma, injuring guests at an outdoor wedding. Tens of thousands of residents across the region lost power.
“There’s just a bunch of debris left behind with no traces of it. The damage is pretty severe,” Cook County Sheriff Ray Sappington told The Associated Press.
The dead included two children, ages 2 and 5, according to the sheriff’s office.
A family of three was found dead in a home near Valley View, a small Texas community, Sappington said.
Hugo Parra, who lives in Farmers Branch, north of Dallas, said he and about 40 to 50 other people rode out the storm in a gas station restroom.
“Firefighters came to check on us and said, ‘You’re so lucky,'” Parra said. “The only way to describe it is that the wind tried to pull us out of the bathroom.”
At least two people were reported dead in Arkansas, including a 26-year-old woman whose body was found outside a destroyed home in the small Boone County town of Albay, said Daniel Boren of the county’s emergency management office.
One more person died in Benton County, Arkansas, where county spokeswoman Melody Kwok said several others were injured and emergency crews were still responding to calls.
“We’re still continuing our search and rescue efforts,” she said. “It’s a very active situation.”
Aerial photo video posted online Footage from Rogers, Benton County, in northwest Arkansas, showed destroyed stores, water gushing from broken pipes and downed trees and fences in front of homes.
“The main thing that’s happening right now is [is] 4029 News reported that Rogers Police Department spokesman Keith Foster said the “road department is working hard to clear major roads.” Said.
according to As of 1:35 p.m. Sunday, 97,340 customers were without power in Arkansas, according to PowerOutage.us.
Plus, the smell of natural gas is pervasive, says Fox weather reporter Max Gordon. Reports“Gas pipes have burst in some places and the damage is extensive,” he said.
Officials also confirmed two deaths in Mayes County, Oklahoma. Details of the fatalities were not immediately available, said Mike Dunham, deputy director of emergency management for the county.
Meanwhile, more than 20 injuries were reported in Claremore. ReportsOfficials also said three of the injured were in serious, possibly life-threatening condition.
in announcement The Oklahoma Emergency Management Agency said in a statement Sunday that the American Red Cross has opened two evacuation centers for residents displaced by the storm: at Memorial Heights Baptist Church on Will Rogers Road in Claremore and at the Mayes County Fairgrounds in Pryor.
The destruction comes after a grim month of deadly weather across the central United States.
At least five people were killed and dozens injured in a tornado that ripped through Iowa this week. The deadly tornadoes occurred during a historically bad tornado season at a time when climate change is contributing to the intensity of storms around the world. April was the second-most tornado-prone month on record in the U.S.
Elsewhere in Denton County, the tornado overturned a tractor-trailer and shut down traffic on Interstate 35, said Dawn Cobb, a county spokeswoman. Evacuation shelters were opened in the rural town of Sanger.
At least 60 to 80 people were inside the truck stop on the highway when the storm hit, several of whom had been evacuated, but no one was seriously injured, Sappington said.
As dawn broke, the full extent of the damage began to become clear, with aerial footage showing dozens of damaged homes, some with roofs fallen and others reduced to rubble.
Residents awoke to upturned cars and collapsed garages. Some were seen wandering around assessing the damage and sorting through wooden debris. Nearby, neighbors sat on the foundations of their collapsed homes.
At the peak of the storm, more than 24,000 homes and businesses in the state lost power, according to the Oklahoma Emergency Management Agency, which also reported that baseball-sized hail fell on an outdoor wedding in rural Woods County, causing multiple injuries.
As the storm moved across the region overnight, meteorologists and officials issued urgent warnings to evacuate. “If you’re in the path of this storm, evacuate now!” the National Weather Service in Norman posted on Twitter.
The Denton, Texas, Fire Department posted on social media that emergency crews near Dallas were responding to a marina with “multiple reported casualties, some trapped.” Roads were also impassable in Oklahoma, with power lines downed, and officials in the Tulsa suburb of Claremore said on social media that the city had been “shut down” due to damage.
“Our hearts are broken for our friends in neighboring communities who are suffering immeasurable loss from last night’s tornado. The great thing about Denton is that we come together in difficult times,” Denton city officials said. Said On facebook.
April and May have been a particularly tornado-prone month for the Midwest, with Iowa hit hard last week when a deadly tornado devastated Greenfield, while other storms caused flooding and wind damage in other parts of the state.
Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Announced FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers will be opening in Ringgold, Union and Clark counties “to provide individualized assistance to those affected by the recent tornadoes and severe storms.”
In addition to being physically accessible to people with disabilities, Disaster Recovery Centers are equipped with assistive and adaptive technology, such as amplified phones, captioned phones, video phones and wheelchair ramps, to help people access resources.
More severe storms were expected in Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky.
Forecasters said the risk of severe weather will move into North Carolina and Virginia on Monday.
