Violent tornadoes that ripped through parts of the U.S. proved deadly as well as destructive as whipping winds moved east into the Mississippi Valley and Deep South on Saturday, with at least 17 people killed and scores of homes decimated.
The most fatalities as of Saturday morning were in Missouri, authorities said, which was lashed by twisters overnight that resulted in at least 11 deaths. The Missouri State Highway Patrol also reported that multiple people were injured.
The deaths included a man who was killed after a tornado ripped apart his home.
“It was unrecognizable as a home. Just a debris field,” said coroner Jim Akers of Butler County, describing the scene that confronted rescuers. “The floor was upside down. We were walking on walls.”
Rescuers managed to save a woman in the home, Akers said.
Officials in Arkansas said on Saturday morning that three people died in Independence County and 29 others were injured across eight counties as storms passed through the state overnight.
“We have teams out surveying the damage from last night’s tornadoes and have first responders on the ground to assist,” Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on X.
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She and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared states of emergency in their respective states. Kemp said he was making the declaration in anticipation of severe weather moving toward the state later Saturday.
On Friday, meanwhile, authorities said three people were killed in car crashes during a dust storm in Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle.
The deaths come as a massive storm system moving across the country unleashed winds that triggered deadly dust storms and fanned more than 100 wildfires.
Extreme weather conditions — including hurricane-force winds — are forecast to affect an area home to more than 100 million people. Winds gusting up to 130 kilometres per hour were predicted from the Canadian border to Texas, threatening blizzard conditions in colder northern areas and wildfire risk in warmer, drier areas to the south.
Evacuations were ordered in some Oklahoma communities as more than 130 fires were reported across the state.
Nearly 300 homes have been damaged or destroyed in Oklahoma due to fire. Gov. Kevin Stitt said at a Saturday news conference that some 689 square kilometres have burned so far in his state.
The State Patrol said winds were so strong that they toppled several tractor-trailers.
“This is terrible out here,” said Charles Daniel, a truck driver hauling a 48-foot (14.6-metre) trailer along Interstate 40 in western Oklahoma. “There’s a lot of sand and dirt in the air. I’m not pushing it over 55 mph. I’m scared it will blow over if I do.”
Experts say it’s not unusual to see such weather extremes in March.
Tornadoes hit amid storm outbreak
The Storm Prediction Center said fast-moving storms could spawn twisters and hail as large as baseballs on Saturday, but the greatest threat would come from straight-line winds near or exceeding hurricane force, with gusts of 160 km/h possible.
Significant tornadoes, some of which could be long-track and violent, are expected Saturday afternoon and evening. The region at highest risk stretches from eastern Louisiana and Mississippi in the afternoon and then Alabama and western portions of Georgia and the Florida panhandle in the evening, the centre said.
Wildfires break out amid dry, gusty conditions
Apart from Oklahoma, wildfires elsewhere in the Southern Plains threatened to spread rapidly amid warm, dry weather and strong winds in Texas, Kansas, Missouri and New Mexico.
A blaze in Roberts County, Texas, northeast of Amarillo, quickly blew up from about two square kilometres to an estimated 85 square kilometres, the Texas A&M University Forest Service said on X. Crews stopped its advance by Friday evening.
About 90 kilometres to the south, another fire grew to about 10 square kilometres before its advance was halted in the afternoon.
High winds also knocked out power to more than 260,000 homes and businesses in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, according to the website poweroutage.us.
Blizzard warnings in Northern Plains
The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for parts of far western Minnesota and far eastern South Dakota starting early Saturday. Snow accumulations of 7.6 to 15.2 centimetres were expected, with up to 30 centimetres possible.
Winds gusting to 97 km/h were expected to cause whiteout conditions.
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