Tornadoes struck cities in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas Saturday night, as storms across the Southern Plains killed at least two people, damaged homes, overturned trucks and left more 300,000 homes without electricity.
Severe weather was moving east Sunday morning. More than 19 million people were in an area at “increased” risk of severe weather, and more than a million people were under tornado watch in parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee early Sunday.
A tornado in North Texas on Saturday killed at least two people and injured several others, Cooke County Sheriff Ray Sappington said. Its force overturned tractor-trailers and RVs and damaged a marina in Denton County, according to a briefing from county officials.
Emergency workers have rescued some trapped people and are searching other homes, authorities said. The exact number of injured is not yet known, the prefecture said. A Shell truck stop in Cooke County was also severely damaged, trapping people inside after the storm passed.
“We can see heavy damage,” Justin Stamps, police chief of Valley View, a city north of Dallas, said in an email, adding that the city was in the early stages of relief operations.
In Oklahoma, a tornado downed trees and power lines, making some roads inaccessible and knocking out power, Rogers County authorities said. social networks. Power was out in Claremore, a town about 30 miles northeast of Tulsa, and would remain out “for an extended period of time.” according to the city police department. “Last night’s storm caused a lot of damage,” police said.
In Arkansas, police were responding to people trapped after a tornado caused gas leaks and downed trees and power lines, knocking out power to large parts of the town of Rogers, police said local.
“There was structural damage to some businesses and residences,” Keith Foster, a spokesperson for the Rogers Police Department, said in an email. At least three businesses suffered significant damage, he said, and local gas companies responded to an “overwhelming” number of calls about gas leaks.
Emergency service lines were “flooded” with calls, with the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, which includes Rogers and Decatur, said on social media, and crews were working to clear blocked roads.
In total, more than 320,000 customers were without power in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas early Sunday morning. according to the PowerOutage.us websitewhich tracks information on public services across the country.
In Texas, the tornado threat had diminished Sunday morning, according to the National Weather Service in Fort Worth. said.
Still, many areas of the Great Plains were bracing for more severe weather. Parts of Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee could see large hail, damaging winds and possibly stronger tornadoes on Sunday.
The United States has been subjected to a wave of destructive storms over the past week, with at least a few tornadoes reported each day.
Five people died and part of a city was destroyed in Iowa on Tuesday after the southwestern part of the state was engulfed by a system that produced a powerful tornado that traced a 43-mile path and packed winds of at least 185 miles per hour.
