Severe thunderstorms and strong winds in the Great Plains region Saturday evening injured residents, damaged homes and left more than 50,000 electric customers in Oklahoma and Texas without power, local authorities said, while that more than two dozen tornadoes were reported overnight.
More than 13 million people from Texas to Illinois have been under the tornado watches starting at 2 a.m. local time, which means tornadoes could occur over the next few hours. Severe weather followed a day in which tornadoes ravaged parts of Nebraska and Iowa and razed dozens of houses on Friday.
Thunderstorms were expected to move east into the Mississippi Valley on Sunday, and heavy rain was forecast in Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana. the National Weather Service said.
Initial reports indicated that damage from the latest round of storms was concentrated in Oklahoma, where a series of tornadoes Saturday night were believed to have ravaged parts of the state, including the towns of Sulfur, Holdenville and Ardmore, according to the Weather . Service.
There were injuries, downed power lines, flooded roads and damaged homes in several counties, the state Department of Emergency Management said. said in a statement late Saturday evening.
The tornado threat to central Oklahoma had largely eased by early Sunday morning, but the eastern and southeastern parts of the state still faced a moderate risk until 5 a.m., according to an opinion issued by the Weather Service office in Norman, Okla.
Nearly 30 tornadoes were reported in the region between Saturday afternoon and early Sunday, including some Saturday evening in Kansas, Texas and Missouri, according to the weather service.
Ryan Jewell, a forecaster at the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center, said Saturday’s situation was complicated because of the large number of storms.
“They are starting to interact and there are several pockets of potential,” he said.
Tornadoes hit Nebraska and Iowa on Friday.
Tornadoes struck several areas of Nebraska and Iowa on Friday, where at least nine people were injured by the winds that hit the area. Dozens of houses were razed and an industrial building collapsed.
At a news conference Saturday in Douglas County, Neb., where more than 150 homes were damaged, Chris Franks of the weather service described extensive damage caused by winds of up to 165 mph.
“These are strong tornadoes, rare tornadoes,” he said, describing a system that started in the Lincoln area and another tornado that formed over Eppley Airfield in Omaha. “It is extraordinary that tornadoes that have less than a 10 percent chance of occurring in and around the metropolitan area, given the lack of deaths and serious injuries.”
The weather service said it received more than 100 tornado reports Friday in at least five Great Plains states.
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen said he visited several hard-hit areas, which he called “extraordinarily sobering.”
Phil Enke, an elder at Harvest Alliance Church in Minden, Iowa, said the house of worship was flattened in Friday’s storms. Mr. Enke, 65, walked over splinters and debris Saturday afternoon, looking for documents and photographs he could salvage.
“We were just trying to get things that can’t be replaced,” Mr. Enke said.
“It’s a problem and a disaster, but we just have to pick up the pieces and move on,” he added.
