Tornadoes and storms left 15 people dead across the central United States

At least 18 people died as tornadoes and storms tore through parts of the central United States, destroying homes and cutting power to hundreds of thousands.

Seven people died in north Texas, eight in Arkansas, two in Oklahoma and one in Kentucky. More people were injured and nearly 500,000 people were without power in several states on Sunday.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said more than a third of all counties in his state now have a disaster declaration.

Sheriff Ray Sappington of Cooke County, Texas, said the death toll there included two children aged two and five and three members of the same family.

“It was just a trail of debris,” said the police chief of Valley View, one of the places hardest hit by the powerful tornado. “The devastation was quite severe.”

Footage from the district showed a gas station and rest stop almost completely destroyed, with twisted pieces of metal scattered across damaged vehicles.

The tornadoes toppled trucks, closed a highway near Dallas and left tens of thousands of people in the area without power.

Meanwhile, lightning, thunder and heavy rain forced about 125,000 spectators to evacuate as Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 race was postponed by four hours.

Frank Soltysiak, who lives in a mobile home park in north Texas, said his home was destroyed within minutes when a storm passed through.

Mr Soltysiak was in a nearby restaurant when the restaurant owner drove up “honking the horn and telling everyone to get out”, he told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.

He grabbed his dog Sampson and took refuge in the restaurant’s walk-in refrigerator.

“It’s the safest structure you can go to. When I walked out, everything was destroyed,” he said.

“Within two minutes it will be gone, everything will be gone.”

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said the state’s emergency response units were activated to respond to the tornado.

“Please pray for these families,” he said of those whose loved ones died. “Their loss is immeasurable.”

The storms in Texas piled up with record heat in some parts of the state, sending residents into triple-digit heat warnings over the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

In Oklahoma, two people were killed in Mayes County and six others were injured, local emergency management agencies told the BBC.

Arkansas officials said a 26-year-old woman was found dead outside a destroyed home in Olvey, while another of four deaths in the state was reported in Benton County. The state also reported multiple injuries.

Police officials in Rogers, Arkansas, said they rescued several people who were trapped after a tornado toppled trees and power lines and damaged gas lines. burn.

In Kentucky, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenburg confirmed on social media that a man was killed by a falling tree during a severe storm on Sunday.

By Sunday afternoon, the storm system had begun moving east, according to the National Weather Service, which warned of strong winds and hail for those in its path.

In a press conference, Governor Abbot said: “We are experiencing a heartbreaking loss of life, including the grief of a family who lost a two-year-old and a five-year-old child. .

“When they woke up yesterday, they had no idea how their family was literally crushed by this terrible storm.”

According to the website Poweroutage.us, about 470,000 people were without power in states stretching from Texas to Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky.

A spokesperson for Sedgwick County in Kansas, which includes Wichita, told CBS News that emergency services were dealing with downed trees and power lines from the storm, which left about 8,000 customers without power.

The latest tornadoes follow another strong tornado that tore through a rural town in Iowa and killed four people in early May.

Government forecasters also described this summer as possibly an “extraordinary” 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, which begins next month.