At least 41 people are dead after a weekend of dynamic storms unleashed tornadoes, blinding dust and wildfires — leaving behind uprooted trees and flattening hundreds of homes and businesses across seven states in the U.S. South and Midwest.
Weather forecasters gave an unusual “high risk” designation to the storm system, which began Friday before tapering off Sunday. For now, people in the affected communities are surveying damage as some brace for more potentially damaging weather.
“It’s not that uncommon to get impacts across that many states, but this one was even on the stronger side of what we would typically see,” Marc Chenard, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said Monday.
Here's what to know about the unusually erratic and destructive weather system that socked central and eastern portions of the U.S.
Where and how did people die?
Missouri has reported the most deaths with at least 12 lost to tornadoes. Mississippi lost six people to tornadoes.
Two boys, ages 11 and 13, were killed when a tree fell on their home in western North Carolina on Sunday, according to a statement from Connestee Fire Rescue. Relatives said two children were trapped in their bedroom and both succumbed to their injures before firefighters could reach them, officials said.
At least three people were killed in central Alabama when tornadoes swept across the state. John Green found the body of his neighbor, Dunk Pickering, who killed by a tornado in Plantersville on Saturday night. Residents spent hours pulling people from the rubble and carrying them to paramedics who were unable to reach the area because of fallen trees blocking the roads.
Kansas reported eight deaths and Texas three, due to vehicle crashes caused by dust storms.
Oklahoma reported four people dead from high winds or fires, and Arkansas has reported three.
Multiple tornadoes in several states
There was a significant outbreak of tornadoes, with 46 on Friday and 41 on Saturday, according to a preliminary count, Chenard said. There were no reports of tornadoes on Sunday, but there were reports of wind damage, especially from West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.
Two strong tornadoes tore through the same Mississippi county roughly within an hour of the other on Saturday, according to a preliminary report from the National Weather Service.
The twisters had preliminary ratings of EF-2 and EF-3, out of a rating scale of 0 to 5. They caused devastating damage in Walthall County, in far southern Mississippi, and the town of Tylertown, where tall trees were ripped in half and entire neighborhoods wiped out.
Six people were killed and more than 200 were displaced, Gov. Tate Reeves said.
Wayne County, Missouri, resident Dakota Henderson said he and others rescuing trapped neighbors Friday found five bodies scattered in rubble outside what remained of his aunt’s house. Scattered tornadoes killed at least a dozen people in the state Friday, authorities said.
Coroner Jim Akers of Butler County, Missouri, described the home where one man was killed as “just a debris field.”
“The floor was upside down,” he said. “We were walking on walls.”
Wildfires and dust storms also proved deadly
Wind-driven wildfires caused extensive damage in Oklahoma and officials in both Oklahoma and Texas warned that parts of both states would again face an increased risk of fire danger this week.
More than 130 fires were reported across the state on Friday and over 400 homes were damaged. Oklahoma officials said Sunday evening that the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner had confirmed four fatalities related to fires or high winds across the state.
Dust storms spurred by high winds resulted in eight deaths Friday after at least 50 vehicles crashed on a highway, according to the state highway patrol. Authorities said three people also died in car crashes during a dust storm in Amarillo, in the Texas Panhandle.
Another system coming this week
The National Weather Service said weekend tornado watches had mostly expired, but dangerous winds were still possible in the Carolinas, east Georgia and northern Florida through Sunday.
Another system is moving out of the Rockies and into the Plains in coming days, Chenard said. The threat of winter weather picks up on Tuesday into Wednesday in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan, with significant snow and wind bringing hazardous conditions.
To the south, across portions of the Plains, there will be drier air, bringing fire weather risk.
“We’re almost certainly going to see fire" on Monday and Tuesday, said Keith Merckx at Oklahoma Forestry Services. “These fires, once they get started, become really hard to stop. They move more quickly than our resources can keep up with.”
Recovery efforts
President Donald Trump said the White House was monitoring the storms and would assist state and local officials to help in the recovery. He said National Guard troops were deployed to Arkansas.
The Associated Press
