Severe Memorial Day weather: Powerful US storm leaves many dead as it moves east

VALLEY VIEW, Texas (AP) — Powerful storms left a widespread trail of destruction across Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas after killing at least 18 people, injuring hundreds, destroying homes, destroying truck stops and sending dozens of people seeking shelter in bathrooms in the latest wave of deadly weather to hit the central U.S.

The storm will hit hardest an area stretching from north Dallas to northwest Arkansas, and could bring more severe weather to other parts of the Midwest. By Monday, the greatest risk will move eastward, from Alabama to near New York City, forecasters said.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency in a post on social media platform X early Monday, citing “multiple reports of wind damage and tornadoes.”

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said at a press conference Sunday that seven people were reported dead in Cook County, near the Oklahoma border, after a tornado struck a rural area near a mobile home park on Saturday night. The dead included two children, ages 2 and 5. A family of three was found dead in one home, according to the county sheriff.

The storms also killed two people and damaged homes in Oklahoma, injured a guest at an outdoor wedding in Oklahoma, eight people in Arkansas and one in Kentucky, and left tens of thousands of residents without power across the region.

About 100 people were injured and more than 200 homes and buildings were destroyed in Texas, Governor Abbott said as he sat in front of a destroyed truck stop near the small farming community of Valley View, the hardest hit area where wind speeds were estimated to have reached 135 miles per hour (217 kph), officials said.

“The hopes and dreams of Texas families and small businesses have been literally shattered by storm after storm,” Abbott said. The state Eight people killed in Houston Earlier this month.

Governor Abbott signed an amended severe weather disaster declaration on Sunday, adding Denton, Montague, Cook and Collin counties to the list of counties already under disaster declarations due to the storms and flooding in late April.

Hugo Parra, who lives in Farmers Branch, north of Dallas, said he and 40 to 50 other people rode out the storm in a truck stop bathroom, after the storm ripped the roof and walls off the building, shredded metal beams and left mangled cars in the parking lot.

“Firefighters came to check on us and said, ‘You’re so lucky,'” Parra said. “The only way to describe it is that the wind tried to pull us out of the bathroom.”

Several people were taken by ambulance and helicopter to hospitals in Denton County, north of Dallas.

Abbott said no further deaths were expected in Texas and no one had been reported missing, but rescuers were conducting one more search as a precaution.

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed eight deaths statewide at a press conference Sunday night. Emergency officials said two of the deaths were attributable to storm conditions and not directly caused by the weather. The deaths included one person who suffered a heart attack and one who lost oxygen after losing power.

The dead included a 26-year-old woman whose body was found outside a destroyed home in the small Boone County town of Albay, said Daniel Boren of the county emergency management agency. One person was killed in Benton County and two more bodies were found in Marion County, authorities said.

Two people were killed in Mayes County, east of Tulsa, Oklahoma state officials said.

In Louisville, Kentucky, a man was killed by a falling tree on Sunday, police said. Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg confirmed on social media that the death was caused by the storm.

A series of deadly storms

The destruction comes after a grim month of deadly weather across the central United States.

Last week’s tornado hit Iowa At least five people died Dozens of people were injured. This deadly tornado occurred during a historically bad tornado season. Climate Change Storms are becoming more intense around the world. Second most frequent tornado outbreaks It remains on record in the country.

Meteorologists and officials issued urgent warnings to evacuate as the storm moved across the region late Saturday night and into Sunday. “If you’re in the path of this storm, evacuate now!” the National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma, posted on Twitter.

Harold Brooks, a senior scientist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, said persistent warm, moist air is the cause of the string of tornadoes over the past two months.

Houses destroyed, roads blocked

Residents awoke to upturned cars and collapsed garages on Sunday. Some residents were seen walking around assessing the damage. Nearby, a neighbor sat on the foundations of his collapsed home.

In Valley View, near the truck stop, the storm ripped roofs off homes and blew out windows, leaving clothes, insulation, plastic pieces and other debris entangled in miles of barbed wire fences that encircle rural pastures.

Kevin Dorantes, 20, was in nearby Carrollton when he learned a tornado was heading toward the Valley View neighborhood where he lives with his father and brother. He called them and told them to take shelter in a windowless bathroom, where they rode out the storm and survived unscathed.

As he walked through a neighborhood riddled with downed power lines and destroyed homes, Dorantes said he came across a family whose house had been reduced to rubble, with friends and neighbors rushing to rescue a father and son trapped under the rubble.

“They were conscious but seriously injured,” Dorantes said.

Widespread power outage

The severe weather caused power outages to tens of thousands of homes and businesses in the storm’s path.

By late Sunday, more than 80,000 customers were without power in Arkansas. More than 90,000 were without power in neighboring Missouri. There were 27,000 reported outages in Texas and 3,000 in Oklahoma, according to a tracking website. Power Out.