Arkansa: At least 21 people were killed by storms that produced possibly dozens of tornadoes in small towns and major cities throughout the South and Midwest on Saturday.
The storms also tore through the capital of Arkansas, collapsed the roof of a crowded concert venue in Illinois, and astounded residents of the area with the extent of the damage.
In at least eight states, tornadoes that were confirmed or suspected to have occurred decimated homes and businesses, split trees, and devastated entire neighborhoods.
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Seven people were killed in one Tennessee county, four in Wynne, a small town in Arkansas, three in Sullivan, Indiana, and four in Springfield, Illinois, among the dead.
In addition to the one reported near Little Rock, Arkansas, where city officials claimed more than 2,600 buildings were in a tornado's path, other fatalities from the storms that hit Friday night into Saturday were also reported in Alabama and Mississippi.
The roof of the high school in Wynne, a town of 8,000 people located 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Memphis, Tennessee, was torn off and its windows were blown out when residents woke up on Saturday. Massive trees with reduced-to-nub stumps were lying on the ground. Homes and businesses were plagued by shattered walls, windows, and roofs.
Clothing, insulation, roofing paper, toys, splintered furniture, a pickup truck with its windows broken, and other items from everyday life were scattered throughout the shells of the houses and on the lawns.
As a tornado passed, Ashley Macmillan recalled that she, her husband, their kids, and their dogs were huddled in a tiny bathroom with their dogs, "praying and saying goodbye to each other, because we thought we were dead." Their house was severely damaged by a falling tree, but no one in the family was hurt.
We felt the house trembling and heard loud noises and rattling dishes. Then it just became calm," she remarked. Bulldozers and chainsaws were being used by workers to clear the area as the recovery process got under way. Power was restored by utility workers.
According to David Leckner, the mayor of Adamsville, at least seven people died in Tennessee's McNairy County, which is located east of Memphis and close to the Mississippi border. Although it appeared that everyone was accounted for, Leckner said that "the majority of the damage has been done to homes and residential areas," adding that crews were going door to door to make sure.
Gov. Bill Lee traveled to the county on Saturday to assess the damage, noting that the storm struck just days after a Nashville school shooting that claimed six lives.
But it seems like your community has responded in a way that Tennesseen communities do, he said.
After seeing on the news that their community of Adamsville was being hit, Jeffrey Day claimed he called his daughter. She answered the phone yelling as the storm passed over while she and her two-year-old son were huddled in a closet.
What do I do, Daddy? was a constant question from her. said Day. "I was at a loss for words."
In Belvidere, Illinois, a heavy metal concert was being attended by about 260 people when a portion of the Apollo Theatre's roof collapsed. Some of them extricated a 50-year-old man from the wreckage, but when help arrived, he had already passed away. Officials reported that 40 additional people had been hurt, including two who had serious injuries.
"They pulled someone out of the wreckage, and I sat with him, held his hand, and told him it would be OK. Concertgoer Gabrielle Lewellyn told WTVO-TV, "I didn't really know much else to do.
On Saturday, workers were removing loose bricks from the area surrounding the Apollo while using forklifts. Owners of businesses picked up glass fragments and covered broken windows.
According to Bill Burke, the county board chair, a tornado that struck the area around New Hebron in Crawford County, Illinois, resulted in three fatalities and eight injuries. 60 to 100 families, according to sheriff Bill Rutan, were relocated.
At a news conference, Rutan said, "We've had emergency crews digging people out of their basements because the house is collapsed on top of them, but luckily they had that safe space to go to.
Adam Niemerg, a lawmaker from Illinois, described the tornado as "catastrophic." A mere 95 miles (150 kilometers) southwest of Indianapolis, in Sullivan County, Indiana, three people were killed by that tornado.
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An area south of the county seat, which has a population of about 4,000, is "basically unrecognizable right now," according to Sullivan Mayor Clint Lamb, who also noted that several people were pulled from the rubble overnight. According to reports, there were up to 12 injuries, and rescue teams searched the wrecked areas.
He added that recovery "is going to be a very long process" and expressed his shock that there aren't more "human issues." More than 50 people were injured, some of them seriously, in the Little Rock area, where at least one person was killed.36
According to the National Weather Service, the tornado had wind speeds of up to 165 mph (265 kph) and a path as long as 25 miles (40 kilometers).
When it roared through his neighborhood while Masoud Shahed-Ghaznavi was eating lunch at home, he was forced to hide in the laundry room as sheet rock fell on top of his head and windows broke. The majority of the house was in ruins when he returned.
"I see that the sky is all around me," Shahed-Ghaznavi recalled. Friday night, he hardly got any rest. He said on Saturday in front of his house, "When I closed my eyes, I couldn't sleep, imagined I was here." In order to assist local first responders, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders proclaimed a state of emergency and mobilized the National Guard.
According to county official Mac McCutcheon, a woman was killed in another suspected tornado in Madison County, in northern Alabama. Additionally, authorities in Pontotoc County, in northern Mississippi, confirmed one death and four injuries. Northeast of Peoria, Illinois, tornadoes also broke windows and caused damage in eastern Iowa.
Just hours earlier, President Joe Biden had visited Rolling Fork, Mississippi, where a week earlier, tornadoes had decimated parts of the town. According to Bill Bunting, the Storm Prediction Center's chief of forecast operations, figuring out the precise number of tornadoes could take days. Numerous reports of significant hail and destructive winds were also made, he added.
That was a very busy day, he said. "But that's not unusual," According to PowerOutage.us, over 200,000 of the affected area's homes and businesses—over 530,000 in total—were without power as of noon on Saturday.
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The vast storm system also caused wildfires in the southern Plains; the state forest service of Oklahoma reported nearly 100 new ones on Friday.
The Oklahoma State Department of Health reports that the fires caused at least 32 injuries. More than 40 homes were reportedly destroyed across the state, according to reports. Blizzard conditions were also brought on by the storms in the Upper Midwest. Hail and tornadoes were still a possibility for parts of Pennsylvania and New York in the Northeast.