COOKE, Texas, USA.- The balance of fatalities due to tornadoes in the US rose to 18including four children, in four different states, amid severe weather conditions over the weekend in the country.
At least seven people died in Cooke County, Texas, and two of the victims were two and five years old. Eight other people died in Arkansas, two more people in Oklahoma and another in Kentucky.
In North Texas, between 60 and 80 people were trapped at a gas station until the storm passed. Some of them were injured, but none were life-threatening. The storm damaged several buildings, trees, power lines and vehicles.
He Texas Governor Greg Abbott, signed a disaster declaration for four countieswhich brings the total number of localities to which this measure applies to 106.
“We estimate there are nearly 100 people injured, more than 200 homes or structures destroyed, and more than 220 buildings damaged. As more assessments are conducted, those numbers may increase,” he said.
Abott said it has “been a heartbreaking week with lives lost, property reduced to rubble and the hopes and dreams of those who owned homes crushed, but in true Texas fashion, Texans are responding to this great tragedy with love, care and generosity”.
As damaged areas recover, storms are moving toward the east coast, where strong winds and hail will be reported.
Ruined
In the North Texas town of View Valley, residents wandered through the remains of their homes after seven people were killed when a tornado hit the region.
Cooke County Sheriff Ray Sappington said there is “just a trail of debris” in the area bordering Oklahoma, where the dead include two children, ages 2 and 5, in Valley View, a town of barely 800 inhabitants. The bodies of three members of a family were found at a residence, Sappington said.
Kevin Dorantes, 20, was in the nearby town of Carrollton when he learned that a tornado was approaching the Valley View neighborhood where he lived with his father and brother. He called them and told them to take shelter in the windowless bathroom, where they both waited out the storm and were unharmed.
Some of Dorantes’ neighbors were not so lucky.
As he wandered through the neighborhood, scanning the downed wires and devastated residences, he came across a family whose home was reduced to a pile of rubble. Father and son were trapped under the wreckage, while relatives and neighbors tried to rescue them at all costs, Dorantes said.
“They were conscious, but very hurt,” he said. “The father had a broken leg,” he added.
He said they managed to get the father out and place him on a mattress and take him to a van, in which he and his son were taken to an ambulance located in a nearby store.
Valley View Police Chief Justin Stamms said the small farming community was reeling.
“It’s been exhausting and heartbreaking,” Stamms said. “I have seen similar damage on television, but never before in person. “It’s a terrible thing,” he lamented.
Source: With information from AP / Europa Press
