Wherever thunderstorms and tornadoes have struck since Friday, residents must now face a spectacle of devastation with huge uprooted trees, broken telephone poles and gutted houses.
The death toll from the tornadoes and violent storms that hit several American states this weekend reached at least 29 dead, according to the authorities. Two children and an adult died in Memphis, Tennessee, when trees fell on homes, local police told AFP on Sunday. This brings the death toll in the southern state to 12. The previous national toll reported 26 dead.
In Indiana, five people were killed by a storm, three in Sullivan County and two campers in Owen County, the state’s natural resources management agency announced on Saturday evening.
These deaths are in addition to the victims recorded in the states of Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, in the south, as well as those of Illinois, in the north of the country, and Delaware on the east coast. .
A difficult phenomenon to predict
A structure collapse in Sussex County, Delaware, left one dead on Saturday evening, with weather services also warning neighboring states like Pennsylvania and New York of high winds. and potential tornadoes.
“We are working closely with the State of Indiana and other affected states as they assess the damage and we stand ready to respond to any additional requests for federal assistance,” President Biden said on Sunday. also expressed its support for the victims and their families.
More than 230,000 homes remained without electricity in several states in the north-east of the country on Sunday according to the American site PowerOutage. Tornadoes, meteorological phenomena as impressive as they are difficult to predict, are common in the United States, especially in the center and south of the country.
A week ago, a tornado swept through Mississippi, killing 25 people and causing immense property damage. President Biden visited the site on Friday. In December 2021, about 80 people lost their lives after tornadoes hit Kentucky.
