Tornadoes leave trail of death and destruction across US states.
A series of powerful tornadoes have claimed at least 21 lives and caused widespread damage in several US states. The storms ripped apart homes, toppled trees, flipped vehicles and cut off power to hundreds of thousands of people.
The hardest-hit state was Arkansas, where five people died, including one in the capital city of Little Rock, which was hit by a “catastrophic” tornado, according to the National Weather Service. Four others were killed in the small town of Wynne, where a school and a church were destroyed.
Other states that reported fatalities were Tennessee (7), Illinois (4), Indiana (3), Alabama (1) and Mississippi (1). The death toll could rise as rescue workers search for survivors amid the debris.
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency on Friday and activated the national guard to assist with the recovery efforts. She said she had spoken to President Joe Biden, who offered federal support.
The storm system spawned more than 60 tornadoes across seven states on Friday and Saturday, according to the US government’s Storm Prediction Center. The weather service warned of more severe weather on Saturday, with strong winds, hail and thunderstorms possible across the eastern third of the country.
The tornado outbreak comes a week after a deadly long-track twister killed 26 people in Mississippi. President Biden visited the state on Friday to express his condolences.