Tornado spawned by huge system pulverize homes; 3 dead

Little Rock, The Gulf Observer: A fierce tornado has blasted through Little Rock, Arkansas, and neighbouring towns, killing at least 3 people and injuring dozens of others as it sheared roofs and walls from many buildings, flipped over vehicles and downed trees and power lines, officials said.

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences hospital, the region’s only major trauma center, declared a level-1 mass casualty alert after the tornado struck Little Rock, the state’s capital and most populous city, at Friday afternoon.

The twister was spawned by one of numerous violent thunderstorms raking a vast swath of the U.S. heartland as part of a much larger expanse of extreme spring weather.

Speaking at a late night news conference, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the tornado claimed at least two lives in Wynne, Arkansas, about 160 km east of Little Rock near the Tennessee border.

Nearly 30 people in Little Rock were transported by fire department and other emergency personnel to area hospitals for injuries, Mayor Frank Scott Jr. told reporters, adding that “by the grace of God, we have not experienced any fatalities”.

Police said several areas in the western end of the city were hardest hit, and the mayor described property damage as “extensive”.

Authorities said a theater roof collapsed during a tornado in Belvidere, Illinois, and that injuries have been reported.

The Belvidere Police Department said the collapse occurred as a heavy storm rolled through the area and that calls began coming from the theater at 7:48 pm [local time]. It said that an initial assessment was that a tornado had caused the damage.

Numerous media reports said the collapse occurred at the Apollo Theatre during a heavy metal concert. Belvidere is about 70 miles northwest of Chicago.

More than 350,000 people were at risk from what the National Weather Service called a “confirmed large and destructive tornado” that tore through business districts and neighborhoods in Little Rock and North Little Rock.

Passengers and airport employees at Clinton National Airport took shelter in bathrooms and were ordered to stay there until 3:45 pm [local time].

Aerial footage showed several rooftops were torn from homes in Little Rock and nearby Benton.

Nearly 70,000 customers in Arkansas were out of power on Friday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks outages.

About 32,000 were without power in neighbouring Oklahoma, where where wind gusts between 50 and 60 mph fueled fast-moving grass fires. People were urged to evacuate homes in far northeast Oklahoma City, and troopers shut down portions of Interstate 35 near the suburb of Edmond.

More outages were reported in Kansas, Missouri and Texas.

Massive storms brewing over at least 15 states in the Midwest and southern US have meteorologists urging people to brace for dangerous weather including tornadoes, saying the conditions are similar to those a week ago that unleashed a devastating twister that killed at least 21 people in Mississippi.

More than 85 million people were under weather advisories as the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center forecast an unusually large outbreak of thunderstorms with the potential to cause hail, damaging wind gusts and strong tornadoes that could move for long distances over the ground.

The area at greatest risk for storms on Friday follows a large stretch of the Mississippi River from Wisconsin all the way to Mississippi, with rare high-risk advisories centered around Memphis; and between Davenport, Iowa, and Quincy, Illinois and surrounding areas.

Forecasters issued tornado watches over both high-risk regions until Friday evening, with the weather service expecting numerous tornadoes and calling it a “particularly dangerous situation.”

All told, by Friday afternoon, tornado watches issued by the National Weather Service cover most of Missouri, Arkansas and Iowa; western Illinois; and parts of Wisconsin, Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Mississippi. Tornado warnings were issued for isolated areas of Arkansas, Missouri and Illinois on Friday afternoon.

Also Friday, parts of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Kansas were at risk for widespread fires due to dry conditions, high winds and warm temperatures, the weather service said.

The “intense supercell thunderstorms” predicted for Friday afternoon are only expected to become more common, especially in Southern states, as temperatures rise around the world.