Deadly weather in US leaves at least 18 dead as storms wreak havoc across multiple states – vopbuzz
VALLEY VIEW: Powerful storms killed at least 18 people in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, injured hundreds and left a wide trail of destruction after destroying homes and destroying a truck stop where dozens of people took shelter in bathrooms. deadly weather To hit the center of the USA.
The storms did the most damage in an area stretching from north of Dallas to the northwestern corner of Arkansas, and the system threatened more severe weather for other parts of the Midwest.Forecasters said by Monday the greatest risk would shift eastward and cover a wide swath of the country from Alabama to near New York City.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency early Monday, citing “numerous reports” in a post on social media platform X. wind damage and hurricanes.”
Seven deaths were reported Saturday night in Cooke County, near Texas’ border with Oklahoma, when a tornado ripped through a rural area near a mobile home park, Texas governor Greg Abbott said at a news conference Sunday. Among the dead were two children aged 2 and 5. Three family members were found dead in a home, according to the county sheriff.
Storms also killed two people and destroyed homes in Oklahoma; The injured included guests attending an outdoor wedding, eight people in Arkansas and one person in Kentucky. Tens of thousands of people in the region were left without electricity.
Sitting outside a ruined truck stop near the small farming community of Valley View, Abbott said about 100 people were injured and more than 200 homes and structures were destroyed in Texas. The area was among the hardest-hit, with winds reaching estimated speeds of 135 mph (217 km/h), officials said.
“The hopes and dreams of Texan families and small businesses have literally been crushed by storm after storm,” said Abbott, who is in a state that has seen a succession of severe weather, including storms that killed eight people in Houston earlier this month.
Abbot signed an amended severe weather disaster declaration Sunday that would include Denton, Montague, Cooke and Collin in the list of counties already under a disaster declaration due to storms and flooding in late April.
Hugo Parra, who lives in Farmers Branch north of Dallas, said he rode out the storm with 40 to 50 other people in the truck stop restroom. The storm ripped off the building’s roof and walls, crushed metal beams and left cars in the parking lot.
“A firefighter came to check on us and said, ‘You’re so lucky,'” Parra said. “The best way to explain it is that the wind is trying to rip us out of the bathrooms.”
Many people were transported by ambulance and helicopter to hospitals in Denton County, also north of Dallas.
No more deaths are expected and no one has been reported missing in Texas, but responders are doing another round of searches just in case, Abbott said.
Eight people have died statewide in Arkansas, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed at a news conference Sunday evening. Two of the deaths were attributed to storm conditions but were not directly caused by weather conditions, including one person who suffered a heart attack and one person who was deprived of oxygen due to loss of power, an emergency official said.
Among the dead was a 26-year-old woman who was found dead outside a collapsed home in Olvey, a small community in Boone County, according to Daniel Bolen of the county’s emergency management office. One person died in Benton County and two more bodies were found in Marion County, authorities said.
In Oklahoma, two people died in Mayes County, east of Tulsa, authorities said.
A man was killed when a tree fell on him in Louisville, Kentucky, on Sunday, police said. Louisville Mayor Craig Greenburg confirmed on social media that the death was caused by the storm.
A series of deadly storms
The devastation continued throughout a horrific month of deadly severe weather across the central part of the country.
Tornadoes in Iowa last week caused the death of at least five people and injured dozens of people. The deadly hurricanes hit during a historically bad season for hurricanes, with climate change contributing to the severity of storms around the world. April had the second highest number of tornadoes on record in the country.
Meteorologists and officials issued urgent warnings to take cover as storms moved through the region late Saturday and into Sunday. “If you are in the path of this storm, take cover immediately!” The National Weather Service office in Norman, Oklahoma, posted on X.
Harold Brooks, a senior scientist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, said a persistent pattern of warm, humid weather is responsible for the string of tornadoes over the past two months.
Houses were destroyed, roads were closed
Neighborhood residents woke up Sunday to find cars overturned and garages collapsed. Some citizens were seen assessing the damage. Nearby, neighbors were sitting on the foundation of a dilapidated house.
In Valley View, near the truck stop, storms ripped roofs off homes and blew out windows. Clothing, insulation, pieces of plastic and other debris were wrapped around miles of barbed wire fence lines surrounding rural grazing areas.
Kevin Dorantes, 20, was near Carrollton when he learned the tornado was heading toward the Valley View neighborhood where he lived with his father and brother. He called the two and told them to hide in the windowless bathroom, where they would survive the storm and survive unharmed.
While Dorantes was wandering around the neighborhood of downed power lines and dilapidated houses, he came across a family whose house had been reduced to a pile of shattered rubble. Dorantes said a father and his son were trapped under the rubble, and their friends and neighbors raced to save them.
“They were conscious but seriously injured,” Dorantes said.
Widespread power outages
Severe weather knocked out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses in the storm’s path.
More than 80,000 customers were without power in Arkansas late Sunday. More than 90,000 people were also without power in neighboring Missouri. According to tracking site poweroutage.us, 27,000 outages were reported in Texas and 3,000 in Oklahoma.
In Oklahoma, inaccessible roads and downed power lines led officials in the town of Claremore, near Tulsa, to announce on social media that the town was “shut down” due to damage.
More severe weather expected
The system that caused the recent severe weather was expected to move eastward for the remainder of the holiday weekend.
The Indianapolis 500 started four hours late after a powerful storm moved into the area, forcing Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials to evacuate approximately 125,000 race fans.
More severe storms were expected in Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee.
The risk of severe weather will move into North Carolina and Virginia on Monday, forecasters said.
The storms did the most damage in an area stretching from north of Dallas to the northwestern corner of Arkansas, and the system threatened more severe weather for other parts of the Midwest.Forecasters said by Monday the greatest risk would shift eastward and cover a wide swath of the country from Alabama to near New York City.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency early Monday, citing “numerous reports” in a post on social media platform X. wind damage and hurricanes.”
Seven deaths were reported Saturday night in Cooke County, near Texas’ border with Oklahoma, when a tornado ripped through a rural area near a mobile home park, Texas governor Greg Abbott said at a news conference Sunday. Among the dead were two children aged 2 and 5. Three family members were found dead in a home, according to the county sheriff.
Storms also killed two people and destroyed homes in Oklahoma; The injured included guests attending an outdoor wedding, eight people in Arkansas and one person in Kentucky. Tens of thousands of people in the region were left without electricity.
Sitting outside a ruined truck stop near the small farming community of Valley View, Abbott said about 100 people were injured and more than 200 homes and structures were destroyed in Texas. The area was among the hardest-hit, with winds reaching estimated speeds of 135 mph (217 km/h), officials said.
“The hopes and dreams of Texan families and small businesses have literally been crushed by storm after storm,” said Abbott, who is in a state that has seen a succession of severe weather, including storms that killed eight people in Houston earlier this month.
Abbot signed an amended severe weather disaster declaration Sunday that would include Denton, Montague, Cooke and Collin in the list of counties already under a disaster declaration due to storms and flooding in late April.
Hugo Parra, who lives in Farmers Branch north of Dallas, said he rode out the storm with 40 to 50 other people in the truck stop restroom. The storm ripped off the building’s roof and walls, crushed metal beams and left cars in the parking lot.
“A firefighter came to check on us and said, ‘You’re so lucky,'” Parra said. “The best way to explain it is that the wind is trying to rip us out of the bathrooms.”
Many people were transported by ambulance and helicopter to hospitals in Denton County, also north of Dallas.
No more deaths are expected and no one has been reported missing in Texas, but responders are doing another round of searches just in case, Abbott said.
Eight people have died statewide in Arkansas, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed at a news conference Sunday evening. Two of the deaths were attributed to storm conditions but were not directly caused by weather conditions, including one person who suffered a heart attack and one person who was deprived of oxygen due to loss of power, an emergency official said.
Among the dead was a 26-year-old woman who was found dead outside a collapsed home in Olvey, a small community in Boone County, according to Daniel Bolen of the county’s emergency management office. One person died in Benton County and two more bodies were found in Marion County, authorities said.
In Oklahoma, two people died in Mayes County, east of Tulsa, authorities said.
A man was killed when a tree fell on him in Louisville, Kentucky, on Sunday, police said. Louisville Mayor Craig Greenburg confirmed on social media that the death was caused by the storm.
A series of deadly storms
The devastation continued throughout a horrific month of deadly severe weather across the central part of the country.
Tornadoes in Iowa last week caused the death of at least five people and injured dozens of people. The deadly hurricanes hit during a historically bad season for hurricanes, with climate change contributing to the severity of storms around the world. April had the second highest number of tornadoes on record in the country.
Meteorologists and officials issued urgent warnings to take cover as storms moved through the region late Saturday and into Sunday. “If you are in the path of this storm, take cover immediately!” The National Weather Service office in Norman, Oklahoma, posted on X.
Harold Brooks, a senior scientist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, said a persistent pattern of warm, humid weather is responsible for the string of tornadoes over the past two months.
Houses were destroyed, roads were closed
Neighborhood residents woke up Sunday to find cars overturned and garages collapsed. Some citizens were seen assessing the damage. Nearby, neighbors were sitting on the foundation of a dilapidated house.
In Valley View, near the truck stop, storms ripped roofs off homes and blew out windows. Clothing, insulation, pieces of plastic and other debris were wrapped around miles of barbed wire fence lines surrounding rural grazing areas.
Kevin Dorantes, 20, was near Carrollton when he learned the tornado was heading toward the Valley View neighborhood where he lived with his father and brother. He called the two and told them to hide in the windowless bathroom, where they would survive the storm and survive unharmed.
While Dorantes was wandering around the neighborhood of downed power lines and dilapidated houses, he came across a family whose house had been reduced to a pile of shattered rubble. Dorantes said a father and his son were trapped under the rubble, and their friends and neighbors raced to save them.
“They were conscious but seriously injured,” Dorantes said.
Widespread power outages
Severe weather knocked out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses in the storm’s path.
More than 80,000 customers were without power in Arkansas late Sunday. More than 90,000 people were also without power in neighboring Missouri. According to tracking site poweroutage.us, 27,000 outages were reported in Texas and 3,000 in Oklahoma.
In Oklahoma, inaccessible roads and downed power lines led officials in the town of Claremore, near Tulsa, to announce on social media that the town was “shut down” due to damage.
More severe weather expected
The system that caused the recent severe weather was expected to move eastward for the remainder of the holiday weekend.
The Indianapolis 500 started four hours late after a powerful storm moved into the area, forcing Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials to evacuate approximately 125,000 race fans.
More severe storms were expected in Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee.
The risk of severe weather will move into North Carolina and Virginia on Monday, forecasters said.
