At least 13 dead from storms in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma
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TORNADO-SPAWNING thunderstorms swept across parts of the central United States, killing at least 13 people, ravaging communities and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of homes as forecasters warned of more severe weather over the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
At least seven people 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 dead, Sappington said. Numerous injuries were reported, Cooke County officials said.
As the scale of the disaster came into fuller view on Sunday, officials were wrapping up search-and-rescue operations.
The sheriff said some of the many trailer homes in the area were “completely gone” and others heavily damaged from the storm, which Sappington estimated left a quarter-mile-wide path of destruction stretching 4.8 to 6.4 km.
Video footage from the aftermath of the disaster showed wide swaths of homes and other buildings in shambles or reduced to piles of rubble, with vehicles smashed, while trees were uprooted and stripped bare of foliage.
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A tornado also crossed into Denton County, north-west 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.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott planned to hold a press conference in Valley View, one of the hardest-hit towns, at 4.30 pm CST (9:00 p.m. GMT)
More than 430,000 utility customers were without electricity across an eight-state area stretching from Texas to Ohio, according to the website poweroutages.us.
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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 Centre to coordinate efforts statewide.
In Indiana, stormy weather delayed the start of the famed Indianapolis 500 auto race.
After wreaking havoc across Texas and Oklahoma, storms were moving north-east on Sunday, converging with 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 through much of the Ohio and Tennessee valleys.
As Texas residents struggled to regain their footing from a night of thunderstorms and tornadoes, excessive heat warnings and heat advisories were posted on Sunday across the southern port of the states and along the Gulf Coast into most of Louisiana.
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 US was preparing for what government forecasters have called a potentially “extraordinary” 2024 Atlantic hurricane season beginning June 1. REUTERS
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