At least 7 dead in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas after severe weather in the region

ACACIA CORONADO, SOPHIA TAREEN and KATHY McCORMACK, Associated Press

23 minutes ago

A spectator cools herself with a small electric fan as temperatures soar into the 90s Fahrenheit while she and her friends watch Team USA’s cricket match against Bangladesh, part of a three-match series T20I at Prairie View Cricket Complex on Saturday May 25. 2024, in Houston. (Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle via AP)

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Powerful storms killed at least seven people and left widespread destruction Sunday across Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas after wiping out homes and destroying a truck stop where drivers were sheltering during the latest deadly bad weather that hit the central United States.

Five of the deaths occurred in Texas, near the Oklahoma border, where a tornado swept through a rural area near a mobile home park Saturday evening, officials said. The storms also caused damage in Oklahoma, where guests at an outdoor wedding were injured. Tens of thousands of residents were without electricity across the region.

“All that’s left is a trail of debris. The devastation is pretty bad,” Cooke County Sheriff Ray Sappington told the Associated Press.

Authorities said several people were transported to hospitals by ambulance and helicopter in Denton County, Texas, but did not immediately know the extent of the injuries. Sappington said the Texas deaths included three family members who were found in a home near the small community of Valley View.

At least one person was killed in Arkansas’ Benton County, according to Melody Kwok, the county’s communications director. She said several other people were injured and emergency responders were still responding to calls.

“We’re still in search and rescue right now,” she said. “It’s a very active situation.”

The destruction continued during a dark month marked by deadly bad weather in the center of the country.

Tornadoes that hit Iowa this week left at least five people dead and dozens injured. These deadly tornadoes appeared during a historically bad season for tornadoes, a time when climate change is contributing to the severity of storms around the world. April saw the second highest number of tornadoes ever recorded in the country.

In Texas, a tornado ripped through Denton County, north of Dallas, overturning tractor-trailers and halting traffic on Interstate 35, county spokeswoman Dawn Cobb said. A shelter was opened in the rural town of Sanger.

Sappington said at least 60 to 80 people were inside a truck stop, some of them seeking shelter, when the storm hit, but there were no serious injuries. .

Dawn began to reveal the full extent of the devastation. Aerial images showed dozens of damaged homes, many without roofs and others reduced to rubble.

Residents woke up to overturned cars and collapsed garages. Some residents could be seen pacing and sorting through pieces of wood, assessing the damage. Nearby, neighbors sat on the foundation of a destroyed house.

At the height of the storms, more than 24,000 homes and businesses lost power in Oklahoma, according to the state Office of Emergency Management. The agency also reported extensive damage from baseball-sized hail and multiple injuries at an outdoor wedding taking place in rural Woods County.

Meteorologists and authorities issued urgent warnings for people to take shelter as storms moved through the region overnight. “If you are in the path of this storm, hide now!” » the National Weather Service office in Norman posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

In Texas, Denton firefighters posted on social media that emergency crews near Dallas were responding to a marina “for several victims, some reported trapped.” Inaccessible roads and downed power lines in Oklahoma also led authorities in the town of Claremore, near Tulsa, to announce on social media that the town was “on lockdown” due to the damage.

April and May were a busy month for tornadoes, especially in the Midwest. Iowa was hit hard last week, when a deadly tornado devastated Greenfield. Other storms caused flooding and wind damage elsewhere in the state.

The system causing the latest severe weather was expected to move eastward through the rest of the Memorial Day weekend, bringing rain that could delay Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 race in Indiana and storms most violent in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Kentucky.

The risk of severe weather shifts to North Carolina and Virginia on Monday, forecasters said.

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Tareen reported from Chicago and McCormack reported from Concord, NH