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At least three dead as ‘destructive’ tornadoes rip through Arkansas Theatre roof collapse kills one as deadly storms tear through southern and midwest US
(about 4 hours later)
State of emergency declared as powerful storm system moves through midwest and southern US Tornadoes leave devastation in states including Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa and Oklahoma, with at least four dead, more injured and extensive damage
A monster storm system tore through the south and midwest on Friday, spawning deadly tornadoes that shredded homes and shopping centers, overturned vehicles and uprooted trees as people raced for shelter. A monster storm system tore through southern and midwest US on Friday, spawning deadly tornadoes that shredded homes and shopping centres in Arkansas and collapsed a theatre roof during a heavy metal concert in Illinois.
At least one person was killed and two dozen or more were hurt, some critically, in the Little Rock area, authorities said. The town of Wynne in north-eastern Arkansas was also devastated, and officials reported two dead there, along with destroyed homes and people trapped in the debris. Authorities said one person was killed and 28 people injured after the roof of the Apollo Theater collapsed during a tornado in the town of Belvidere, about 70 miles (113km) north-west of Chicago.
Elsewhere, two more confirmed twisters touched down in Iowa, damaging hail fell in Illinois and wind-whipped grass fires blazed in Oklahoma, part of a massive storm system threatening a broad swath of the country that is home to some 85 million people in the south and midwest. The Belvidere fire department chief, Shawn Schadle, said 260 people were in the venue at the time. He said first responders also rescued someone from an elevator and had to grapple with downed power lines outside the theatre.
The fresh devastation came as Joe Biden toured a rural Mississippi town where a tornado killed more than 20 people just a week ago. The town’s police chief, Shane Woody, described the scene after the collapse as “chaos, absolute chaos”.
In Little Rock, the city’s main trauma center said it was expecting at least 15 to 20 patients. The city’s mayor, Frank Scott Jr, tweeted that he was aware of “24 people who have been hospitalized at Little Rock hospitals” but that there were no reported fatalities yet, and that property damage was “extensive”. At least one person was killed and more than two dozen were hurt, some critically, in and around the Arkansas capital, Little Rock. The town of Wynne in north-eastern Arkansas was also devastated, and officials reported two dead there, along with destroyed homes and people trapped in the debris.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the mayor of Arkansas, declared a state of emergency and activated the state’s national guard to help with the response amid reports of “widespread damage” in the central part of the state. There were more confirmed twisters in Iowa and wind-whipped grass fires blazed in Oklahoma, as the storm system threatened a broad swath of the country home to 85 million people.
The destructive weather came as the president, Joe Biden, toured the aftermath of a deadly tornado that struck in Mississippi one week ago and promised the government would help the area recover.
The Little Rock tornado tore first through neighbourhoods in the western part of the city and shredded a small shopping centre. It then crossed the Arkansas river into North Little Rock and surrounding cities, where widespread damage was reported to homes, businesses and vehicles.
In the evening, officials in Pulaski county announced a confirmed fatality in North Little Rock but did not immediately give details.
Baptist Health Medical Center-Little Rock officials told KATV in the afternoon that 21 people had checked in there with tornado-caused injuries, including five in critical condition.
The mayor, Frank Scott Jr, who announced that he was requesting assistance from the national guard, tweeted in the evening that property damage was extensive and “we are still responding”.
The governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, activated 100 members of the Arkansas national guard to help local authorities respond to the damage throughout the state.
About 50 miles west of Memphis, Tennessee, the small city of Wynne, Arkansas, saw “widespread damage” from a tornado, Sanders confirmed.About 50 miles west of Memphis, Tennessee, the small city of Wynne, Arkansas, saw “widespread damage” from a tornado, Sanders confirmed.
City councilmember Lisa Powell Carter told the Associated Press that Wynne was without power and roads were full of debris. “I’m in a panic trying to get home, but we can’t get home,” she said. “Wynne is so demolished. ... There’s houses destroyed, trees down on streets.” City council member Lisa Powell Carter said Wynne was without power and roads were full of debris.
Police chief Richard Dennis told WHBQ-TV that the city suffered “total destruction” and multiple people were trapped. The unrelenting tornadoes continued moving east into the evening. “I’m in a panic trying to get home, but we can’t get home,” she said. “Wynne is so demolished … There’s houses destroyed, trees down on streets.”
The Little Rock tornado tore first through neighborhoods in the western part of the city and shredded a small shopping center that included a Kroger grocery store. It then crossed the Arkansas River into North Little Rock and surrounding cities, where widespread damage was reported to homes, businesses and vehicles. Tornadoes continued spawning and touching down in the area into the night.
Passengers and airport employees at Clinton national airport in Little Rock took shelter in bathrooms. And aerial footage showed several rooftops were torn from homes in Little Rock and nearby Benton, and nearly 70,000 customers in Arkansas lost power, according to poweroutage.us. The police department in the western Tennessee city of Covington said on Facebook that the city was impassable after power lines and trees fell on roads when the storm passed through Friday evening. Authorities in Tipton county, north of Memphis, said a tornado appeared to have touched down near the middle school in Covington and in other locations in the rural county.
Resident Niki Scott took cover in the bathroom after her husband called to say a tornado was headed her way. She could hear glass shattering as the tornado roared past, and emerged afterward to find that her house was one of the few on her street that didn’t have a tree fall on it. Tornadoes moved through parts of eastern Iowa, with sporadic damage to buildings. Images showed at least one flattened barn and some houses with roofing and siding ripped off.
“It’s just like everyone says. It got really quiet, then it got really loud,” Scott said afterward, as chainsaws roared and sirens blared in the area. One tornado veered just west of Iowa City, home to the University of Iowa, which cancelled a watch party at an on-campus arena for the women’s basketball Final Four game. Video from KCRG-TV showed toppled power poles and roofs ripped off an apartment building in the suburb of Coralville and significantly damaged homes in the city of Hills.
Outside a Little Rock Guitar Center, singer and songwriter Red Padilla told the Associated Press that he and five bandmates sheltered inside the store for around 15 minutes with over a dozen others while the tornado passed. The power went out and they used the flashlights on their phones to see. Nearly 90,000 customers in Arkansas lost power, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks outages.
“It was real tense,” Padilla said. In neighboring Oklahoma, wind gusts of up to 60mph (96km/h) fuelled fast-moving grass fires. People were urged to evacuate homes in far north-east Oklahoma City and troopers shut down portions of Interstate 35.
The potent storms brewing over at least 15 states prompted meteorologists to warn people to brace for tornadoes and other dangerous weather, saying they were similar to those a week earlier that unleashed a devastating twister that killed at least 21 people in Mississippi. In Illinois, more than 109,000 customers had lost power as of Friday night. More outages were reported in Iowa, Missouri, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Indiana and Texas.
Joe Biden toured Rolling Rock, Mississippi, on Friday to survey the aftermath of the deadly twister which destroyed roughly 300 homes and businesses in Rolling Fork and the nearby town of Silver City leaving mounds of lumber, bricks and twisted metal. Hundreds of additional structures were badly damaged. At Chicago’s O’Hare international airport, a traffic management program was put into effect that caused arriving planes to be delayed by nearly two hours on average, WFLD-TV reported.
The president pledged that the federal government was not leaving until the area was back on its feet. In the close-knit community of Rolling Fork, Biden read aloud the names of each of the 13 residents of the small town killed in the storm after touring the wreckage. He acknowledged that the road to recovery will be long and hard, but said he was committed to helping them through it. The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center had forecast an unusually large outbreak of thunderstorms with the potential to cause hail, damaging wind gusts and strong tornadoes that could move for long distances over the ground.
“We’re not just here for today,” said Biden, standing near an animal shelter and a hardware store reduced to rubble by the powerful storm as he addressed members of the devastated community. “We’re going to get it done for you. We’re going to make sure you can stay right here.” Meteorologists said conditions on Friday were similar to those a week ago that unleashed the devastating twister that killed at least 21 people and damaged about 2,000 homes in Mississippi.
The US is likely to see more killer tornado- and hail-spawning supercell storms like the one that devastated Rolling Fork as the world warms, according to a new study that also warns the lethal storms will edge eastward to strike more frequently in the more populous southern states, like Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
The Associated Press contributed reporting