At least 32 people have died in a massive storm across the US following newly reported fatalities in Kansas and Mississippi.
Violent tornadoes tore through parts of the country, demolishing schools and overturning semitractor-trailers in multiple states. The storm, which has claimed at least 32 lives, was expected to bring more severe weather late Saturday.
The death toll rose after the Kansas Highway Patrol confirmed that eight people died in a highway pileup caused by a dust storm in Sherman County on Friday, involving at least 50 vehicles.
In Mississippi, Governor Tate Reeves announced six deaths across three counties, with three additional people missing. He reported 29 injuries in the state in a nighttime post on X.
Missouri suffered the highest number of fatalities, with at least 12 deaths from scattered tornadoes overnight. Among the victims was a man whose home was destroyed by a tornado.
“It was unrecognisable as a home. Just a debris field,” said Butler County Coroner Jim Akers, describing the scene faced by rescuers.
“The floor was upside down. We were walking on walls.”
Dakota Henderson recounted how he and others rescued people trapped in their homes on Friday night in Wayne County, Missouri, where they discovered five bodies scattered among the wreckage of his aunt’s house.
“It was a very rough deal last night,” he said on Saturday, standing amid splintered homes and uprooted trees.
“It’s really disturbing what happened to the people—the casualties last night.”
Henderson and others pulled his aunt from a bedroom, the only part of her house left standing, through a window. They also carried out a man with a broken arm and leg.
In Arkansas, officials reported three deaths in Independence County and 29 injuries across eight counties.
“We have teams out surveying the damage from last night’s tornadoes and first responders on the ground to assist,” Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on X.
She and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp declared states of emergency, with Kemp issuing the declaration in anticipation of severe weather expected later Saturday.
Meanwhile, three people were killed in car crashes during a dust storm in Amarillo, Texas Panhandle, on Friday.
EXTREME WEATHER AFFECTS 100 MILLION PEOPLE
The storm system, which stretched across the country, triggered deadly dust storms and fuelled more than 100 wildfires.
More than 100 million people were expected to be affected by extreme weather conditions, with wind gusts reaching 130 kph from the Canadian border to Texas. Blizzard conditions were forecast in the colder northern regions, while warmer and drier areas to the south faced wildfire risks.
The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for parts of western Minnesota and eastern South Dakota early Saturday, predicting snow accumulations between 3 to 6 inches (7.6 to 15.2 cm), with up to a foot (30 cm) possible. Winds gusting up to 97 kph were expected to create whiteout conditions.
Evacuations were ordered in some Oklahoma communities as more than 130 fires were reported statewide, damaging or destroying nearly 300 homes. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt said on Saturday that approximately 689 square kilometers had burned.
The high winds were powerful enough to overturn several tractor-trailers, according to the State Patrol.
Experts noted that such extreme weather conditions are not uncommon in March.
TORNADOES CONTINUE AMID STORM OUTBREAK
The Storm Prediction Center warned that fast-moving storms could produce tornadoes and hail the size of baseballs on Saturday. However, the most significant threat was from hurricane-force winds, with gusts potentially reaching 160 kph.
Tornadoes continued to strike on Saturday, with the highest-risk areas stretching from eastern Louisiana and Mississippi to Alabama, western Georgia, and the Florida Panhandle.
Bailey Dillon(24), and her fiancé, Caleb Barnes, watched a massive tornado from their porch in Tylertown, Mississippi, about half a mile (0.8 km) away, as it hit an area near Paradise Ranch RV Park.
After the storm passed, they drove to assess the damage and filmed a video showing snapped trees, destroyed buildings, and overturned vehicles.
“The amount of damage was catastrophic,” Dillon said. “A large number of cabins, RVs, and campers were just flipped over—everything was destroyed.”
Paradise Ranch later reported on Facebook that all staff and guests were safe and accounted for. However, Dillon noted that destruction extended beyond the park.
“Homes and everything around it were destroyed,” she said. “Schools and buildings are just completely gone.”
Some of the extreme weather footage has gone viral.
Tad Peters and his father, Richard Peters, were refuelling their pickup truck in Rolla, Missouri, on Friday night when tornado sirens sounded. They saw other drivers leaving the interstate to seek shelter.
“Whoa, is this coming? Oh, it’s here. It’s here,” Tad Peters is heard saying in a video. “Look at all that debris. Ohhh. My God, we are in a torn ...”
His father then rolled up the truck window. The two, who were on their way to a weightlifting competition in Indiana, decided to turn back to their home in Norman, Oklahoma—six hours away—where they encountered wildfires.
Wildfires elsewhere in the Southern Plains threatened to spread rapidly due to warm, dry conditions and strong winds in Texas, Kansas, Missouri, and New Mexico.
In Roberts County, Texas, northeast of Amarillo, a wildfire rapidly expanded from under a square mile (about 2 square km) to an estimated 32.8 square miles (85 square km), the Texas A&M University Forest Service reported on X. Crews managed to halt its advance by Friday evening.
About 90 km south, another fire grew to roughly 3.9 square miles (10 square km) before being contained in the afternoon.
Strong winds also caused power outages for more than 200,000 homes and businesses across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan, according to poweroutage.us.
Bd-Pratidin English/ARK
