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WAYNE (United States), April 2 (AP) – A storm that could spark dozens of tornadoes has killed at least 21 people in small towns and large cities in the South and Midwest, opening a path through the Arkansas state capital to make way for a The roof of a crowded concert venue collapsed in Illinois, and the extent of the damage was staggering Saturday across the region.
Tornadoes have been confirmed or suspected in at least eight states, destroying homes and businesses, knocking out trees and decimating communities across swathes of the country. The dead included seven people in one county in Tennessee, four in the small town of Wayne, Arkansas, four in Illinois and three near Sullivan, Indiana.
Alabama and Mississippi also reported other deaths from the storm Friday night into Saturday, as well as a death near Little Rock, Arkansas, where the mayor said more than 2,000 buildings were in the path of the tornado .
Wayne, a community of about 8,000 people 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Memphis, Tennessee, woke up in shock Saturday to find its high school’s roof shredded and windows blown out. The big tree fell to the ground, leaving only one stump. Broken walls, windows and roofs destroyed homes and businesses.
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Debris and memories of everyday life are scattered inside the battered shell of the home and across the lawn: clothes, insulation, roofing paper, toys, shattered furniture, and a pickup truck with shattered windows.
“I’m heartbroken that my town has been hit so hard,” said salon owner Heidi Jenkins. “Our school is gone, my church is gone. I feel sorry for all the people who have lost their homes.”
Restoration work is underway, with workers using chainsaws to cut down fallen trees and bulldozers to move material from the shattered structures. Utility trucks worked to restore power, and volunteers began helping.
Adamsville Mayor David Leckner said at least seven people had died in McNairy County, Tennessee, which lies east of Memphis along the border of the Mississippi River.
“Most of the damage was in homes and residential areas,” Lechner said, adding that while it appeared everyone had been cleared, crews were going door-to-door to make sure.
In Belvidere, Illinois, some of the 260 people who attended a heavy metal concert at the Apollo Theater pulled a 50-year-old man from the rubble after part of the roof collapsed; already dead. Another 40 people were injured, two of them life-threatening, officials said.
“They dragged a man out of the rubble, and I sat with him, held his hand, and I[told him]everything was going to be alright. I really didn’t know what to do,” said the concertgoer. Gabrielle Lewellyn told WTVO-TV.
The venue’s Facebook page says the bands scheduled to perform are Morbid Angel, Crypta, Skull Remains and Undo.
Crews cleaned up around the Apollo on Saturday, using forklifts to remove loose hanging bricks. Business owners pick up shards of glass and cover broken windows.
When a particularly violent tornado swept through the rural town on April 21, 1967, killing 24 people, a mural featuring an oversized black-and-white photograph depicting Schoolchildren struggled in strong winds and torrential rain.
In Crawford County, Illinois, three people were killed and eight were injured after tornadoes lashed around New Hebron, county council president Bill Burke said.
That was not far from where the three people were killed in Sullivan County, Indiana, about 95 miles (150 kilometers) southwest of Indianapolis.
Sullivan Mayor Clint Lamb said at a news conference that an area south of the county seat of about 4,000 people is “now largely unrecognizable” after several people were rescued from the rubble overnight. As many as 12 people were reported injured, he said, as search and rescue teams scoured the affected area.
“Frankly, I’m really, really shocked that as far as human problems go, there aren’t more problems,” he said, 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 20 people were injured, some seriously, authorities said. Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott said 2,100 homes and businesses were in the path of the tornado, but had not yet assessed how many were damaged.
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 a tornado swept through his neighborhood, sending drywall falling on his head and shattering windows, causing him to take shelter in the laundry room. When he emerged, the house was mostly in rubble.
“I saw that everything around me was the sky,” recalls Shahed-Ghaznavi. He barely slept on Friday night.
“I couldn’t sleep when I closed my eyes, thinking I was here,” he said outside his home on Saturday.
Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard to help local responders.
A suspected tornado killed a woman in northern Alabama’s Madison County, County Officer Mac McCutcheon said. In Ponto Toque County in northern Mississippi, officials confirmed one death and four injuries.
The storm came just hours after President Joe Biden visited the Mississippi community of Rolling Fork, where a tornado devastated parts of the town last week.
Tornadoes also caused damage in eastern Iowa and broke windows of cars and buildings northeast of Peoria, Illinois.
Bill Bunting, director of forecast operations for the Storm Prediction Center, said it could take several days to determine the exact number of tornadoes. There were also hundreds of reports of large hail and damaging winds, he said.
“It was a pretty active day,” he said, “but it wasn’t unprecedented.”
Hundreds of thousands of people lost power as the spreading storm system also brought wildfires to the southern Plains, blizzard conditions to the upper Midwest and left high winds behind the storm. The Northeast remains under threat of tornadoes and hail, including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and New York.
More than 530,000 homes and businesses were without power in the affected area by midday Saturday, according to PowerOutage.us, including more than 200,000 in Ohio.
The snowstorm swept through parts of Minnesota, the Dakotas and Wisconsin, leaving tens of thousands without power in the Twin Cities area. Portions of Interstate 29 are closed.
Nearly 100 new wildfires were reported in Oklahoma on Friday, and firefighters hoped to make progress Saturday, according to the Oklahoma Forest Service. Fires are expected to remain dangerous this week. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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