Death toll rises to 21 after tornadoes sweep across the South and the Midwest-PHOTO-UPDATED-1

Death toll rises to 21 after tornadoes sweep across the South and the Midwest-PHOTO -UPDATED-1
# 02 April 2023 01:40 (UTC +04:00)

At least 21 people were killed after a powerful storm system barreled through large swaths of the South and Midwest on Friday, APA reports citing NPR.

The series of grueling tornadoes come just a week after a rare, long-lasting twister left 25 people dead in western Mississippi and one person in Alabama.

In Tennessee, seven people died in McNairy County, near the Mississippi border, following severe weather, according to The Associated Press.

"The damage and loss that our community suffered last night was catastrophic," the Adamsville Police Department in McNairy County said on social media Saturday.

In Covington, Tenn., the local police department said the city was "impassable" in the wake of a tornado. Homes were battered, power lines were downed and search and rescue teams were deployed, according to police.

In Arkansas, multiple tornadoes tore through the state, along with severe thunderstorms and golf ball-size hail. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency and activated 100 members of the state's National Guard in response to the deadly weather.

At least four people died and dozens more were injured in the city of Wynne in east Arkansas, Cross County Coroner Eli Long told KAIT-TV.

In Little Rock, at least one person was killed and two dozen were hospitalized, local officials said. Homes, apartment complexes and storefronts were severely damaged, according to the Little Rock Police Department.

"As dawn breaks we start the long process of recovery and rebuilding," the city's mayor, Frank Scott Jr., wrote on Twitter Saturday morning.

A series of storms that included a tornado and baseball-size hail also brought devastation to Illinois. In Belvidere, a city northwest of Chicago, one person died and 28 were injured after the roof of the Apollo Theatre caved in.

About 260 people were at the venue to attend a heavy metal concert and calls about a collapse began to come in at 7:48 p.m. local time, Belvidere Fire Chief Shawn Schadle told the AP.

In Crawford County, Ill., near the Indiana border, three people were killed and eight more were injured, county Board Chair Bill Burke told the AP on Saturday.

In Indiana's Sullivan County, three people were dead after a tornado charged through, the AP reported.

"Our worst fears became a reality earlier when we learned that members of our community have lost their lives," Sullivan County Sheriff Jason Bobbitt said on Saturday.

One elderly woman was killed in Madison County in northern Alabama after a tornado struck her home, County Coroner Dr. Tyler Berryhill told NPR.

At least one person has died and four others were injured in Pontotoc County in northern Mississippi due to severe weather, according to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

More than 559,000 customers in Indiana, Illinois, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin were without power as of Saturday afternoon, according to Poweroutage.us, which tracks outages.

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23.35

At least 18 people have been killed as storms and tornadoes hit towns and cities across the US South and Midwest, tearing a path through the Arkansas capital and collapsing the roof of a packed concert venue in Illinois, APA reports citing Al Jazeera.

Several tornadoes touched down on Friday night across at least seven states, laying waste to homes and businesses and splintering trees, as part of a sprawling storm system that brought wildfires to the southern plains states and blizzard conditions to the upper Midwest.

Tens of thousands lost power as the storms smothered a swath of the country home to some 85 million people.

The dead included seven in Tennessee’s McNairy County, four in the town of Wynne, Arkansas, and three in Sullivan, Indiana. Other deaths were reported in Alabama, Illinois, Mississippi and the Little Rock area.

Stunned residents of Wynne, a community of about 8,000 people 50 miles (80 kilometres) west of Memphis, Tennessee, woke on Saturday to find the high school’s roof shredded and its windows blown out. Huge trees lay on the ground, their stumps reduced to nubs. Broken walls, windows and roofs pocked homes and businesses.

Recovery was already under way, with workers using chainsaws to cut fallen trees and bulldozers moving material from shattered structures. Utility trucks worked to restore power.

Seven people died in McNairy County, east of Memphis, Tennessee, along the Mississippi border, said David Leckner, the mayor of Adamsville.

“The majority of the damage has been done to homes and residential areas,” Leckner said, adding that although it appeared all people had been accounted for, crews were going door to door to be sure.

In Belvidere, Illinois, some of the 260 people attending a heavy metal concert at the Apollo Theatre pulled a man from the rubble after part of the roof collapsed; he was dead when emergency workers arrived. Officials said 28 other people were injured at the theatre, some severely.

“They dragged someone out from the rubble, and I sat with him and I held his hand and I was [telling him] ‘It’s going to be OK.’ I didn’t really know much else what to do,” concertgoer Gabrielle Lewellyn told WTVO-TV.

Three people died in Indiana’s Sullivan County, near the Illinois line about 95 miles (150km) southwest of Indianapolis.

In the Little Rock area in Arkansas, at least one person was killed and more than two dozen were hurt, some critically, authorities said. Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott said that 2,100 homes and businesses were in the tornado’s path, but that no assessment had been done on how many were damaged.

Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders activated 100 members of the National Guard to help local authorities respond.

A suspected tornado killed a woman in northern Alabama’s Madison County, said county official Mac McCutcheon. And in northern Mississippi’s Pontotoc County, officials confirmed one death and four injuries.

The turbulent weather came after President Joe Biden toured the wreckage of a major storm that hit the state of Mississippi last week.

The swarm of thunderstorms unleashed a deadly tornado that devastated the Mississippi town of Rolling Fork, destroying many of the community’s 400 homes and killing 25 people. One person was killed in neighbouring Alabama.

Bident promised to rebuild in Mississippi as meteorologists warned millions of people to brace for enormous storms brewing over at least 15 states in the Midwest and southern US, with more than 85 million people under weather advisories on Friday.

***20.53

At least 11 people are dead across five states and dozens have been hospitalized after a tornado outbreak moved through the Midwest and South on Friday night, local officials told ABC News, APA reports.

Dozens of tornadoes were reported across Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin, but the exact number of confirmed tornadoes has yet to be verified. More than 28 million people across the South and Midwest were under a tornado watch going into Friday night, according to the National Weather Service.

Of the 11 people who have died, five were in Arkansas, three died in Indiana, one died in Illinois, one died in Alabama and one died in Mississippi, according to officials.

There were 57 tornado reports across a huge area spanning seven states over the past 24 hours. The number of tornado reports continues to rise as of Saturday morning, as the storm threat is ongoing.

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