Powerful storms and possible tornadoes pummeled towns in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas on Saturday night, killing at least six people, damaging homes, overturning trucks and leaving hundreds of thousands without power.
The severe weather was moving east on Sunday morning. More than 15 million people were in an area with an “enhanced” risk of severe weather, and more than 800,000 people were under a tornado watch in parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee on Sunday morning.
In northern Texas on Saturday, a tornado left at least five dead — three adults and two children — and at least 20 people injured, said Ray Sappington, the sheriff of Cooke County.
Three of those people were trapped in debris at the same home, he said. Another person died after his home was completely blown away. “Sadly, we fear that number is going to rise,” he said, adding that some of the injured were in serious condition.
Emergency responders were still searching for people who could be trapped in the debris, he said, and two children were still missing. At least 60 people had been stranded after a Shell truck stop in Cooke County was severely damaged, and several sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
The path of the tornado snapped power poles and severely damaged structures in an area about four miles in length, Sheriff Sappington said. It could take more than a week to fully restore electricity to the area, he added.
“Today we are waking up to a huge mess, and devastation,” he said.
In Arkansas, one person died in Benton County and multiple people were injured, according to local authorities, who said in a briefing on Sunday morning that the area had been hit by probable tornadoes. Officials declared a disaster in the county, with Decatur and Rocky Branch among the hardest hit areas.
Police officers were responding to people trapped after a possible tornado caused gas leaks and downed trees and power lines, cutting off electricity in large parts of the city of Rogers, the local police department said.
“There has been some structural damage to some businesses and residences,” Keith Foster, a spokesman for the Rogers police department, said in an email. At least three businesses had major damage, he said, and local gas companies were responding to an “overwhelming” amount of calls over gas leaks.
In Denton County, Texas, a tornado also overturned semitrailer trucks and motor homes and damaged a marina, according to a briefing from county authorities. “There has been heavy damage that we can tell,” Justin Stamps, the police chief in Valley View, a city north of Dallas, said in an email.
In Oklahoma, trees and power lines were knocked down by a possible tornado, cutting off electricity and leaving some roads inaccessible, the authorities in Rogers County said on social media. Power was out in Claremore, a city about 30 miles northeast of Tulsa, and would remain so “for an extended period of time,” according the city’s police department. “There is a lot of damage from tonight’s storm,” the police said.
In all, more than 360,000 customers were without power in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and Texas early Sunday morning, according to the site PowerOutage.us, which tracks utilities information across the country.
In Texas, the tornado threat had diminished by Sunday morning, the National Weather Service in Fort Worth said.
Still, many areas of the Great Plains were bracing for more severe weather. Parts of Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee on Sunday could see large hail, damaging winds and possibly more strong tornadoes on Sunday.
The United States has come under an onslaught of destructive storms in the past week, with at least a few reports of tornadoes each day.
Five people died and part of a city was obliterated in Iowa on Tuesday after the southwestern part of the state was swallowed by a system that produced a powerful tornado that carved a 43-mile path and packed winds of at least 185 miles per hour.