Strong tornadoes hit parts of the US destroying schools and flipping trucks across several states. The huge storm has killed at least 26 people and more bad weather was expected late Saturday. The death toll went up after the Kansas Highway Patrol said eight people died in a highway crash during a dust storm in Sherman County on Friday. Around 50 vehicles were involved.
Missouri had the most deaths, with at least 12 people killed by tornadoes, officials said. One of them was a man who died when a tornado destroyed his home. “It was unrecognisable as a home. Just a debris field,” said Coroner Jim Akers of Butler County. “The floor was upside down. We were walking on walls.”
Dakota Henderson said he and others tried to rescue people from destroyed homes in Wayne County, Missouri. They found five dead bodies in the debris outside his aunt’s house. “It was a very rough deal last night,” he said Saturday, standing among fallen trees and broken homes. “It’s really disturbing what happened to the people, the casualties last night.” He said they saved his aunt from the only room left in her house, helping her out through a window. They also carried out a man with a broken arm and leg.
In Arkansas, three people died in Independence County, and 29 were hurt across eight counties as storms hit the area. “We have teams out surveying the damage from last night’s tornadoes and have first responders on the ground to assist,” Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on X. She and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared states of emergency. Kemp said he made the declaration because more severe weather was expected Saturday.
On Friday, three people died in car crashes during a dust storm in Amarillo, Texas.
Extreme weather affects 100 million people
The storm system caused powerful winds, deadly dust storms, and more than 100 wildfires across the country. The bad weather could affect over 100 million people. Winds up to 80 mph (130 kph) were expected from the Canadian border to Texas, causing blizzards in colder areas and wildfire danger in warmer ones.
The National Weather Service gave blizzard warnings for parts of Minnesota and South Dakota. Snow of 3 to 6 inches was expected, possibly up to a foot. Winds up to 60 mph (97 kph) could cause whiteout conditions.
In Oklahoma, fires led to evacuations in some communities, with over 130 fires reported. Nearly 300 homes were damaged or destroyed. Gov. Kevin Stitt said 266 square miles (689 square kilometers) had burned. Winds were strong enough to tip over several semitrailers.
Experts say such extreme weather is common in March.
Tornadoes continue in storm outbreak
The Storm Prediction Center said fast storms could cause more tornadoes and hail as big as baseballs on Saturday. But the biggest danger was from very strong winds, up to 100 mph (160 kph). Big tornadoes kept hitting on Saturday. The highest-risk areas included eastern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, western Georgia, and the Florida Panhandle.
Bailey Dillon, 24, and her fiancé Caleb Barnes watched a large tornado from their porch in Tylertown, Mississippi. It hit near Paradise Ranch RV Park. They later drove over to help and recorded video of destroyed buildings and overturned vehicles. “The amount of damage was catastrophic,” Dillon said. “It was a large amount of cabins, RVs, campers that were just flipped over — everything was destroyed.”
Paradise Ranch said on Facebook that all staff and guests were safe, but Dillon said damage went beyond the ranch. “Homes and everything were destroyed all around it,” she said. “Schools and buildings are just completely gone.”
Some videos of the storm have gone viral. Tad Peters and his dad, Richard Peters, were getting fuel in Rolla, Missouri, when they heard tornado sirens. “Whoa, is this coming? Oh, it’s here. It’s here,” Tad Peters said in a video. “Look at all that debris. Ohhh. My God, we are in a torn …” His dad then rolled up the window. They were heading to Indiana for a weightlifting event but turned back to Oklahoma, where they found wildfires.
Wildfires spreading fast
Fires are spreading quickly in the Southern Plains due to warm, dry weather and strong winds in Texas, Kansas, Missouri, and New Mexico.
One fire in Roberts County, Texas, grew quickly from a small area to 32.8 square miles (85 square kilometers), according to the Texas A&M University Forest Service. Crews stopped its growth by Friday evening.
Another fire about 60 miles south grew to about 3.9 square miles (10 square kilometers) before being controlled.
High winds also knocked out power to over 200,000 homes and businesses in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan, according to poweroutage.us.
With inputs from Associated Press (AP)