At least 29 dead after tornadoes hit US South and Midwest | World News

Residents across swathes of the South and Midwest raced Sunday to assess damage from a storm that could have killed dozens tornado At least 29 people were killed in small towns and large cities as severe weather moved into parts of the northeast.

Read it here: Tornadoes hit Arkansas, 24 injured; more than 78,000 without power

Earlier storms tore through a road through the Arkansas state capital and destroyed the roof of a crowded concert venue in Illinois, with the extent of the damage Saturday shocking people across the region.

“This means that the federal government is providing assistance now to support state and local communities that are already An incredible effort.”

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders has declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard. In her state, at least five people were killed.

There were confirmed or suspected tornadoes in 11 states, destroying homes and businesses, splintering trees and leaving communities in ruins. It may take several days to count all the tornadoes that have occurred in recent days.

The National Weather Service confirmed Sunday that tornadoes caused storm damage near Bridgeville, Delaware, where severe weather triggered warnings, damaged many homes and closed roads. One person was found dead Saturday night inside a home severely damaged by the storm, Delaware State Police reported.

At least one other tornado has been confirmed, while weather service teams are investigating how many more may have landed.

The dead also included at least nine people in a Tennessee county, five in Indiana and four in Illinois.

Alabama and Mississippi also reported other deaths from the storm Friday night through Saturday.

Residents of Wayne, Arkansas, a community of about 8,000 people 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Memphis, Tennessee, woke up Saturday to find their high school’s roof ripped off and windows blown out. The big tree fell to the ground, leaving only one stump. At least four people died.

Ashley Macmillan said that when the tornado passed, she, her husband and their children huddled in a small bathroom with their dog, “praying and saying goodbye to each other because we thought we were done.” Dead.” A fallen tree severely damaged their home, but they were not injured.

Chainsaws hummed and bulldozers rolled into the rubble. Utility crews restored power as some communities began to recover.

Nine people were killed in McNairy County, Tennessee, east of Memphis, according to Tennessee Emergency Management Agency Director Patrick Sheehan.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee drove to the county Saturday to inspect the devastation and comfort residents. The storm, which he said capped off his “worst” week as governor, comes days after a Nashville school shooting that killed six people, including a family friend, who he and his wife, Maria, had earlier in the day. attended his funeral.

“What’s happening in this community, in this county, in this state is horrific,” Lee said. “But it looks like your community has done what the Tennessee community has done, which is rally and respond.”

Jeffrey Day said he called his daughter after seeing news of the attack in their Adamsville neighborhood. After the storm, she huddled in a closet with her 2-year-old son, screaming to answer the phone.

“She kept asking me, ‘Daddy, what should I do?'” Day said, tearing up. “I do not know what to say.”

After the storm, his daughter climbed out of her destroyed home and drove to a nearby home.

In Memphis, police spokesman Christopher Williams said by email late Saturday that three deaths were believed to be weather-related: two children and an adult died when a tree fell on a house.

Tennessee officials warned that the same weather conditions as Friday night were expected to return Tuesday.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker traveled to Belvidere on Sunday to visit the Apollo Theater, which partially collapsed after about 260 people attended a heavy metal concert. A 50-year-old man was pulled from the rubble; he later died.

Another 48 people are being treated in hospital, five of them in critical condition, the governor said.

Pritzker was scheduled to travel later to Crawford County, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) south of Chicago, where three people were killed and eight others were injured when a tornado struck near New Hebron.

“With the house collapsing on top of them, we had emergency responders to get them out of the basement, but luckily they had a safe place to go,” Sheriff Bill Rutan said at a news conference. go.”

The tornado was not far from where the three people died in Sullivan County, Indiana, about 95 miles (150 kilometers) southwest of Indianapolis.

Several people were rescued overnight and as many as 12 people were reported injured.

“I’m really, really shocked that there aren’t more human problems,” said Sullivan Mayor Clint Lamb, adding that recovery “is going to be a very long process.”

In the Little Rock area, at least one person was killed and more than 50 people were injured, some seriously. The National Weather Service said the tornado is a high-end EF3 tornado with winds of up to 165 mph (265 km/h) and a path of up to 25 miles (40 km).

Masoud Shahed-Ghaznavi was eating lunch at home when it roared through his neighborhood, hiding in the laundry room as drywall fell and windows shattered. When he emerged, the house was mostly in rubble.

“Everything around me was the sky,” he recalled Saturday.

Read it here: Explained: Why the U.S. leads the world in weather disasters

Another suspected tornado killed a woman in Madison County in northern Alabama, officials said, while authorities confirmed one death and injured four others in Ponto Tork County in northern Mississippi.

The storm came hours after Biden visited Rolling Fork, Mississippi, where tornadoes devastated parts of the town last week.

The spreading storm system also brought wildfires to the southern plains, with Oklahoma authorities reporting nearly 100 wildfires on Friday. At least 32 people are said to have been injured and more than 40 houses destroyed.