AMN / WEB DESK
At least 26 people have been killed after a series of tornadoes tore through towns and cities in the United States’ South and Midwest. Homes were destroyed and thousands left without power after storms caused devastation across several states.
Accordin to VOA Confirmed or suspected tornadoes in at least eight states destroyed homes and businesses, splintered trees, and laid waste to neighborhoods across a broad swath of the country. The dead included seven in one Tennessee county, four in the small town of Wynne, Arkansas, three in Sullivan, Indiana, and four in Illinois.
Other deaths from the storms that hit Friday night into Saturday were reported in Alabama and Mississippi, along with one near Little Rock, Arkansas, where city officials said more than 2,600 buildings were in a tornado’s path.
Stunned residents of Wynne, a community of about 8,000 people 80 kilometers west of Memphis, Tennessee, woke 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.
Debris lay scattered inside the damaged shells of homes and strewn on lawns: clothing, insulation, roofing paper, toys, splintered furniture, a pickup truck with its windows shattered.
Ashley Macmillan said she, her husband and their children huddled with their dogs in a small bathroom as a tornado passed, “praying and saying goodbye to each other, because we thought we were dead.” A falling tree seriously damaged their home, but no one in the family was hurt.
“We could feel the house shaking, we could hear loud noises, dishes rattling. And then it just got calm,” she said.
Recovery was underway on Saturday, with workers using chain saws to cut fallen trees and bulldozers moving material from shattered structures. Utility trucks worked to restore power.
Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency in the state of Arkansas on Friday, with the national guard activated to help with recovery efforts.
She said she had spoken to President Joe Biden about the situation, who promised federal aid. President Biden visited the state on Friday to pay his condolences.
According to the US Power Outage website, over 590,000 people are without power across several states in the country, with Ohio and Pennsylvania being the worst affected.
Tennessee – where over 105,000 are without power – experienced the most lethal storm, with seven deaths in the county of McNairy, near the border with Mississippi.