Arkansas, United States.— The storms that spawned what are believed to be dozens of tornadoes killed at least 26 people in small towns and large cities across the southern and north-central United States, and left a trail of destruction through the Arkansas capital and collapse the roof of a packed concert hall in Illinois.
Confirmed or suspected tornadoes in at least eight states destroyed homes and businesses, downed trees and leveled neighborhoods across a wide swath of the country. There were at least nine deaths in one Tennessee county, four in the small town of Wynne, Arkansas, four in Illinois and three in nearby Sullivan, Indiana.
Other deaths were reported in Alabama and Mississippi from the storms that struck the country Friday through Saturday night, and one more in Little Rock, Arkansas, where the mayor said more than 2,600 properties were in the path of a tornado.
Residents of Wynne, a community of about 8,000 about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Memphis, Tennessee, woke up Saturday to the news that the high school’s roof was smashed and windows were blown out. Huge trees lay on the ground. Broken walls, windows, and ceilings were seen in all kinds of houses and businesses.
Debris was strewn inside the damaged homes and on the lawns: clothing, wall insulation, toys, splintered furniture and a van with broken windows.
Ashley Macmillan said she, her husband and their children took refuge with their dogs in a small bathroom as the tornado passed, “praying and saying goodbye to each other, because we thought we were going to die.” A falling tree badly damaged her house, but they were unharmed.
“We felt how the house was shaking, we heard loud noises, dishes that rattled. And then everything calmed down,” she recounted.
There were already workers using chainsaws to cut downed trees and bulldozers moving remnants of destroyed structures. Crews of workmen restored electricity.
Nine people died in McNairy County, Tennessee, east of Memphis, said Patrick Sheehan, director of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.
“Most of the damage was to homes and residential areas,” Adamsville Mayor David Leckner said.
In Memphis, police spokesman Christopher Williams said by email late Saturday there were believed to be three weather-related deaths: two children and one adult who died when a tree fell on a house.
Tennessee officials warned that the same weather conditions as Friday night are expected Tuesday.
In Belvidere, Illinois, part of the roof of the Apollo Theater collapsed while about 260 people were inside at a heavy metal concert. A 50-year-old man was pulled from the rubble.
“I sat down with him, held his hand and said, ‘Everything is going to be okay.’ I didn’t know what else to do,” Gabrielle Lewellyn, a concertgoer, told WTVO-TV.
When the emergency teams arrived, he was already dead. According to authorities, another 40 people were injured, two of them seriously.
In Crawford County, Illinois, three people were killed and eight injured when a tornado ripped through the New Hebron area, county board president Bill Burke said.
Sheriff Bill Rutan said between 60 and 100 families were displaced.
Clint Lamb, the mayor of Sullivan, Indiana, told a news conference that an area south of the county seat of about 4,000 people was “essentially unrecognizable at this point” and that several people were pulled from the rubble during the evening. There were reports of up to 12 people injured, he added.
In the Little Rock metropolitan area, at least one person was killed and more than 50 were injured, some seriously.
The National Weather Service reported that the tornado was category EF3, with winds of up to 265 km/h (165 mph) and a ground path of up to 40 kilometers (25 miles).
What is also suspected was a tornado killed a woman in Madison County, Alabama, County Officer Mac McCutcheon said.
In Pontotoc County, in northern Mississippi, authorities confirmed one death and four injuries.
It could take several days to determine the exact number of tornadoes that occurred on the day, said Bill Bunting, head of forecast operations at the Storm Prediction Center.
“It’s a pretty busy day,” he said. “But it’s not unprecedented.”
