At Least 32 Killed by Tornadoes in South and Midwest United States
- ANTARA FOTO/REUTERS/Cheney Orr/foc.
VIVA – A deadly tornado that ripped through the United States killed at least 32 people and injured dozens more in the south and Midwest parts of the country, officials said on Sunday.
The National Weather Service (NWS) said as many as 60 tornadoes were reported in the past 24 hours in areas spanning eight states – Arkansas, Mississippi, Iowa, Tennessee, Illinois, and Wisconsin – where tornadoes crushed homes and businesses, ripped roofs off buildings, splintered trees and sent vehicles flying.
The disaster killed nine people in Tennessee, five people in Arkansas, three people in Indiana, and four people in Illinois, and the death toll from the storm was also recorded in Alabama and Mississippi.
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency amid a severe storm warning on Saturday. Homes and offices were severely damaged, and thousands of buildings suffered power outages in areas hit by hurricanes and storms.
The NWS confirmed that the tornado that hit the Arkansas capital of Little Rock was categorized as a "high-end" EF3 with maximum wind speeds of 164 miles per hour (265 kilometers per hour).
As many as 530,000 families experienced power outages in parts of the US, including more than 200,000 families in the state of Ohio, according to PowerOutage.us, a website that tracks power outages.