At least 14 people have died as a result of tornadoes and storms in several US states. The severe storms on Saturday evening (local time) affected Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma, among others, as the authorities announced on Sunday.
The search for survivors in destroyed buildings continued, and hundreds of thousands of people were without power. A tornado north of Dallas, Texas, killed at least seven people, Cooke County Sheriff Ray Sappington said. Sappington told The Weather Channel that there was “massive damage.” The search and rescue work initially continued. At least two deaths were reported in western Oklahoma after a tornado hit Mayes County, local emergency management chief Johnny Janzen told Fox News.
Five people died in storms in Arkansas, authorities confirmed to local station KATV. Power lines and trees were downed and flooding occurred in some areas. The US Weather Service (NWS) counted a total of 25 tornadoes on Saturday. In Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Tennessee and Arkansas, nearly 500,000 homes were without power as of Sunday morning, the website poweroutage.us reported.
Tornadoes are a weather phenomenon that is difficult to predict and is not uncommon, particularly in the central and southern United States.