Deadly tornado-spawning storms wreak havoc across central U.S.
(Reuters) -Tornado-spawning storms swept across parts of the central United States, killing at least a dozen people and leaving a trail of destruction as forecasters warned of more severe weather over the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
At least seven people, including children, were killed in Texas when a powerful tornado struck communities in the north central part of the state near the Oklahoma border on Saturday night, Ray Sappington, the sheriff of Cooke County, told Reuters.
Two children, aged 2 and 5 years old, were among the victims, Sappington said. Numerous injuries were reported, Cooke County officials said.
As the scale of the disaster came into full view on Sunday, officials were wrapping up search and rescue operations.
The sheriff said some of the many trailer homes in the hardest-hit area were "completely gone" and others had suffered massive damage from the storm which Sappington estimated left a quarter-mile wide path of destruction for three to four miles.
A tornado also crossed into Denton County, northwest of Dallas, on Saturday night, damaging homes and other property, and knocking down power lines. Officials said that "a number of individuals" with injuries were transported to area hospitals.
"The number of people injured and the types of injuries are not known at this time as the incident is still a working scene," authorities wrote in a post on the Denton County Facebook page.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott will hold a press conference in Valley View, one of the hardest-hit towns, at 4:30 p.m. CST (9:00 p.m. GMT)
Hundreds of thousands of customers were without power across a large swath of the country, including in Arkansas, Missouri and Texas on Sunday, according to poweroutages.us.
Officials in Arkansas also reported several storm-related fatalities, including one in Benton County, two in Marion County and a 73-year-old woman in Baxter county. Responding authorities described roads closed and clogged with debris, downed trees and power lines, homes and businesses destroyed, as well as numerous injuries.
Storms caused widespread damage and at least two fatalities in parts of Oklahoma, where officials activated an Emergency Operations Center to coordinate efforts statewide.
In Indiana, adverse weather delayed the start of the famed Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, or Indy 500, car race.
After wreaking havoc across the central states, storms were moving east on Sunday and were expected to merge into a larger complex of thunderstorms, threatening to unleash more severe weather across parts of Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee.
The National Weather Service warned of damaging winds, large hail and more tornadoes in the affected areas.
The latest bout of extreme weather came just days after a powerful tornado ripped through a rural Iowa town, killing four people, and more twisters touched down in Texas last week.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is preparing for what government forecasters have called a potentially "extraordinary" 2024 Atlantic hurricane season beginning June 1.
Thumbnail image credit to Reuters.
(Reporting by Maria Caspani in New York; Additional reporting by Devika Nair and Jahnavi Nidumolu in Bengaluru; editing by David Evans, Diane Craft and Aurora Ellis)
