TEXAS: At least 21 people have been killed in a series of powerful storms that swept across the central and southern United States, leaving a trail of destruction and devastation. The storms caused deaths in the US states of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kentucky, just north of an oppressive, early season heatwave setting records from south Texas to Florida. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency early on Monday after tornadoes ripped through the state.
“It was a tough night for our people,” Beshear said on social media platform X, later adding in a press briefing that “devastating storms” had hit almost the entire state. The governor said “at least a few” tornadoes touched down in Kentucky over the weekend, including one that travelled on the ground for about 65km (40 miles). Officials said 100 state highways and roads were damaged by the storms. The extreme weather system, which struck the region beginning late on Saturday, overturned vehicles and ripped up homes, leaving a wake of deadly destruction in its path.
The death toll over the Memorial Day holiday weekend included at least eight fatalities in Arkansas, seven in Texas, four in Kentucky and two in Oklahoma, according to tallies by state emergency authorities. The deaths in Texas came after a tornado tore through the Valley View area north of Dallas, Cooke County Sheriff Ray Sappington told reporters.
It destroyed homes and a petrol station, and overturned vehicles on an interstate highway. In Oklahoma, at least two people were dead after a tornado hit Mayes County late Saturday, the county head of emergency management, Johnny Janzen, told the Fox News affiliate in Tulsa.
In Kentucky, the latest place left with shattered homes and no power was the tiny community of Charleston. “It’s a big mess,” said resident Rob Linton. “Trees down everywhere. Houses moved. Power lines are down. No utilities whatsoever – no water, no power.” Hundreds of thousands of Americans faced power outages on Monday due to the weather, according to the Power Outage. US tracking website, with Kentucky alone having more than 180,000 outages.
Courtesy: aljazeera
