Powerful storms in the United States have killed at least 11 people, including two children, and left a wide trail of destruction across Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas after obliterating homes and destroying a truck stop where drivers took shelter.
Seven deaths were reported in Cooke County, Texas, near the Oklahoma border, where a tornado ploughed through a rural area near a mobile home park, on Saturday night, officials said.
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.
And in northern Arkansas, two people were killed in storms in the early hours of Sunday, local authorities confirmed.
The dead included two children, ages two and five, the sheriff said.
Multiple people were transported to hospitals by ambulance and helicopter in Denton County, Texas, also north of Dallas. However, officials did not immediately know the full extent of the injuries.
Elsewhere in Denton County, a tornado overturned tractor-trailers and halted traffic on Interstate 35, county spokesperson Dawn Cobb said. A shelter was opened in the rural town of Sanger.
At least 60 to 80 people were inside a highway truck stop, some of them seeking shelter, when the storm barreled through, but there were no serious injuries, Sappington said.
Storms also caused damage in Oklahoma, where guests at an outdoor wedding were injured. Some 375,000 people were also without power early on Sunday in Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas, according to the website PowerOutage.us.
Meteorologists and authorities have issued urgent warnings to seek cover as the storms passed across the region overnight. “If you are in the path of this storm take cover now!” the National Weather Service office in Norman, Oklahoma posted on the social media platform X.
April and May have been busy months for tornadoes, especially in the Midwest. Iowa was hit hard last week when a deadly twister devastated Greenfield. Other storms brought flooding and wind damage elsewhere in the state.
More severe weather has been predicted for the Great Plains region on Sunday, with tornado alerts still in many places. But in Texas, the National Weather Service said the threat had diminished.
