A large number of tornadoes have hit parts of Oklahoma and nearby Great Plains states, leaving at least five people dead, authorities and local media said on Sunday.
After 78 tornadoes were reported Friday, mostly in Nebraska and Iowa, a separate weather system Saturday brought 35 tornado reports from northern Texas and Oklahoma to Missouri, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.
The storm dumped up to seven inches (18 centimeters) of rain in some places in a few hours. Meteorologists warned of continued extreme weather dangers Sunday, including flash flooding, hail and more tornadoes.
Sulfur, in south central Oklahoma, was particularly hard hit on Saturday evening, with videos and images posted on social media showing dozens of buildings in ruins.
A postal truck sat unsteadily on the rubble of buildings and trees, a video showed, with concrete blocks and wooden beams strewn everywhere. Rescue teams conducted house-to-house and vehicle-to-vehicle searches to search for victims or survivors.
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt said four people had been confirmed dead across the state.
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The damage in Sulphur, where a woman died when a tornado passed overnight, was the worst he had seen in his six years in office, he said at a news conference.
“It seems like every business downtown has now been destroyed,” he said, adding “thank goodness… there weren’t many people here at 10:30 p.m.”
At least two people died in the Oklahoma city of Holdenville, the state’s Department of Emergency Management (OEM) said, with local media reporting a four-month-old baby was one of the victims.
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OEM said one person died on a highway in Marietta, where video broadcast by local media showed several damaged cars on the side of the road, with two semi-trucks overturned and a nearby warehouse open.
The National Weather Service said a preliminary investigation had confirmed the tornado in Sulfur and Marietta was at least an EF-3 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale which has five levels, meaning strong winds above 136 miles (218 kilometers) per hour.
Stitt has declared a 30-day state of emergency to speed up aid to 12 of the worst-hit counties, and said he was in contact with federal authorities for assistance.
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An Iowa man injured in Friday’s tornado died later at a hospital, his family told local outlet KETV NewsWatch 7.
More than 25,000 homes in Texas and more than 19,000 in Oklahoma were without power as of Sunday followingnoon, the website poweroutage.us reported.
The region is known for the frequency and strength of the tornadoes that pass through each spring. But having separate large outbreaks on consecutive days is extremely rare, meteorologists said. (AFP/Z-3)
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