At least 14 people, including two children aged two and five, have died after tornadoes ripped through northeastern Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma over Memorial Day weekend.
Seven of the fatalities, including the children, were in Cooke County, Texas, with three deaths occurring in a single household during the devastating twister, Sheriff Ray Sappington told CNN.
As of Sunday afternoon, there were 20 individuals that sustained injuries, NBC Dallas Fort Worth reported.
At least five people were killed in Arkansas, including a 26-year-old woman who was found dead outside a demolished home in Boone County. Another person died in Benton County, Arkansas, CBS reported, with officials confirming that multiple others were injured.
Two people were also killed in Mayes County, Oklahoma due to the severe weather overnight, though details weren’t immediately provided by the county’s deputy director of emergency management Mike Dunham. Six others were injured.
A decimated building at the Marina Circle on Lake Ray Roberts in Denton County, Texas
A giant tornado is seen forming in Windhorst, Texas on Saturday. Twisters would go on to pass through areas surrounding the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth in the northeast of the state
Across the central US and the Midwest, the severe weather has downed power for over 480,000 people and over 110 million Americans are under warnings for the calamitous fronts.
Sappington said that most of the deaths in Texas occurred in a mobile home community called FRF Estates in Valley View, where crews continue to conduct search-and-rescue operations amid ‘major damage,’ WFAA reported.
The twister also decimated the AP Travel Center in Valley View, where 60 to 80 people had driven to take shelter in the parking lot, in the bathrooms or in the Shell gas station that the storm has since reduced to rubble.
Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick shared a statement late Sunday morning, announcing that state emergency response units had been activated. He also gave his condolences to the victims.
‘Jan and I are praying for the first responders, families in all impacted areas, and victims who tragically lost their lives,’ Patrick wrote on X.
Outside of Cooke County, millions of Americans in mid-Mississippi and the Ohio and Tennessee River valleys are at risk of large hail storms, high-speed winds and tornadoes.
People in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas were also the victim of extreme weather on Saturday night, with more than 250,000 homes throughout the Plains and surrounding areas having lost power.
Currently, nearly 500,000 customers in the lower-central US and the Midwest are without electricity, with the most affected state being Kentucky as the stormy weather moves east.
More than 15 million Americans are under enhanced storm risk, most of them in big population centers like Indianapolis, Nashville, and Cincinnati.
The 108th annual Indianapolis 500 was delayed by the impending thunder and lightning, and fans were asked to exit the grandstands.
Meanwhile, local officials in Texas are picking up the pieces and continuing to search for possible victims.
Sappington told WFAA Sunday morning that he expected the number of dead in Cooke County ‘to go up.’
A tornado ripped through this parking lot north of Denton, Texas
Debris is strewn about in this parking lot and a man is seen roaming the damage early Sunday morning
Pictured: The gas station in Valley View, Texas that 60 to 80 people sheltered near during the Saturday night tornado
Denton County, Texas experienced a possible tornado that injured an unknown number of residents, flipped 18-wheelers and knocked down trees and powerlines, according to local officials
The nearly 80 individuals at the AP Travel Center in Valley View were trapped until the storm passed further east, Sappington said.
Some of the 20 total people that were injured were at the gas station within the travel center, but none of the injuries were life threatening.
People’s vehicles in the parking lot of the travel center were damaged or destroyed, leaving about 40 people stranded, though a bus eventually came and transported them somewhere else so they could be picked up by family members.
Other parts of Texas around the Dallas Fort Worth area saw catastrophic destruction, including nearby Denton County, where a possible tornado injured an unknown number of residents, flipped 18-wheelers and knocked down trees and powerlines, CNN reported.
Officials responded to a series of different locations, including ‘homes and RV trailer parks,’ Denton County spokesperson dawn Cobb said in a news release.
Multiple homes in the neighboring city of Celina were also damaged by Saturday’s ‘apparent tornadic activity,’ officials there said.
Cooke County Sheriff Ray Sappington says he expects the death toll, which currently sits at six, will go up as search and rescue efforts continue
Fox Dallas Fort Worth spoke with a Celina resident Kim Weston, who came home after the storm only to find that her home was destroyed.
Weston’s mother, who also lives in the area, was trapped in her home at the time but was later rescued, Fox reported.
‘We have heard that everyone on the street is OK and unfortunately our house was a total loss, but you know we’re grateful that we’re ok,’ Weston said.
‘It was a godsend we weren’t home. the neighbor across the street had an RV and it landed on our house the only part that’s standing is where we would have been sheltered.’
A probable tornado also swept through Rogers County, Oklahoma, near the city of Tulsa.
The city of Claremore, a major municipality in that county, had ‘a lot of damage,’ authorities said, adding that electricity would be out for most residents for ‘an extended period of time.
WFAA obtained dramatic footage from two people driving straight through the tornado. They were identified as Valenia Gill and Brenda Procter Dance, and were driving south along I-35 toward the Texas town of Sanger at around 10:45 p.m. on Saturday.
A home is reduced to nothing but a pile of debris in North Texas
‘We’re right in the middle of the tornado Brenda, what do I do? The car is shaking,’ Valenia says, as the wind whips debris into their car.
The gusts get stronger within seconds and the ladies stop the car, with Brenda repeating, ‘Cover your head, cover your head.’
Once the twister starts to die down a bit, Valenia keeps the car stopped and says, ‘I don’t want to go anywhere yet. I’m shaking.’
As the various storms move into the Midwest, forecasters are saying there is a Level 3 of 5 risk of severe thunderstorms over parts of the Mississippi and Ohio valleys into Monday morning. That area could experience anywhere from EF2 to EF5 tornadoes as well.
However, severe weather is lingering in the middle of the country, with a Level 4 to 5 risk of thunderstorms remaining in parts of Central and Southern Plains through Sunday morning.
The thunderstorms forecasters expect to see in the Midwest by Sunday afternoon will grow and reach areas farther south and east through the evening and the nighttime hours.
The width of the storm could stretch as north as the Great Lakes and as south as bits of Louisiana and the panhandle of Florida.
This means major airport hubs in Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Nashville could be battered with heavy rain and lightning, leading to canceled and delayed flights on Memorial Day Weekend.
Record-breaking heat waves will also be coming to the southern US during the holiday weekend.
Houston, New Orleans, Miami, Mobile, Alabama; Tampa, Florida, and Charleston, South Carolina, are cities where temperatures will feel more like July than late May, CNN reported.
Daily highs exceeding 115 degrees are possible in some areas, the Storm Prediction Center said.
