At least 21 dead after tornadoes rake U.S. Midwest, South

Tornadoes are part of a sprawling storm system that also brought wildfires to the southern Plains and blizzard conditions to the Upper Midwest

April 01, 2023 06:54 pm | Updated April 02, 2023 02:23 am IST - Arkansas

Damage to homes on E. Kiehl Avenue after a tornado caused extensive damage in the area on Friday, March 31, 2023, in Sherwood, Arkansas. A monster storm system spawned tornadoes that shredded homes and shopping centres, overturned vehicles and uprooted trees as people raced for shelter.

Damage to homes on E. Kiehl Avenue after a tornado caused extensive damage in the area on Friday, March 31, 2023, in Sherwood, Arkansas. A monster storm system spawned tornadoes that shredded homes and shopping centres, overturned vehicles and uprooted trees as people raced for shelter. | Photo Credit: AP

Storms that dropped possibly dozens of tornadoes killed at least 21 people in small towns and big cities across the South and Midwest, tearing a path through the Arkansas capital, collapsing the roof of a packed concert venue in Illinois, and stunning people throughout the region Saturday with the damage’s scope.

Confirmed or suspected tornadoes in at least eight states destroyed homes and businesses, splintered trees, and lay waste to neighborhoods across a broad swath of the country. The dead included seven in one Tennessee county, four in the small town of Wynne, Arkansas, four in Illinois, and three in nearby Sullivan, Indiana.

Other deaths from the storms that hit Friday night into Saturday were reported in Alabama, Illinois and Mississippi, along with one near Little Rock, Arkansas, where the mayor said more than 2,000 buildings were in a tornado’s path.

Stunned residents of Wynne, a community of about 8,000 people 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Memphis, Tennessee, woke Saturday to find the high school’s roof shredded and its windows blown out. Huge trees lay on the ground, their stumps reduced to nubs. Broken walls, windows and roofs pocked homes and businesses.

Wynne City Councilmember Lisa Powell Carter said the town about 80 km west of Memphis, Tennessee, was without power and roads were full of debris.

The fallen marquee is seen at the front entrance of the Apollo Theatre where a roof collapsed during a tornado in Belvidere, Ill., during a heavy metal concert, late on Friday, March 31, 2023.

The fallen marquee is seen at the front entrance of the Apollo Theatre where a roof collapsed during a tornado in Belvidere, Ill., during a heavy metal concert, late on Friday, March 31, 2023. | Photo Credit: AP

“I’m in a panic trying to get home, but we can’t get home,” she said Friday night. “Wynne is so demolished. ... There’s houses destroyed, trees down on streets.”

The storms also killed three people in Sullivan County, Indiana, Emergency Management Director Jim Pirtle said in an email. Some residents were missing in the county seat of Sullivan, near the Illinois line about 95 miles (150 kilometers) southwest of Indianapolis.

At least one person was killed and more than two dozen were hurt, some critically, in the Little Rock area, authorities said.

In Belvidere, Illinois, the roof of the Apollo Theatre collapsed during a tornado, killing one person and injuring 28, five severely. Calls began coming from the theater, about 110 km northwest of Chicago, shortly before 8 p.m., police said. The venue's Facebook page said the bands scheduled to perform were Morbid Angel, Crypta, Skeletal Remains and Revocation.

Belvidere Fire Chief Shawn Schadle said 260 people were in the venue. Responders also rescued someone from an elevator and had to deal with downed power lines outside the theater.

Belvidere Police Chief Shane Woody described the scene after the collapse as “chaos, absolute chaos.”

Arkansas Police and firefighters get help from volunteers clearing downed trees on Keihl Avenue after storms ripped through the area on Friday, March 31, 2023.

Arkansas Police and firefighters get help from volunteers clearing downed trees on Keihl Avenue after storms ripped through the area on Friday, March 31, 2023. | Photo Credit: Thomas Metthe

Gabrielle Lewellyn had just entered the theater when a portion of the ceiling collapsed.

“I was there within a minute before it came down,” she told WTVO-TV. “The winds, when I was walking up to the building, it went like from zero to a thousand within five seconds.”

Some people rushed to lift the collapsed portion of the ceiling and pull people out of the rubble, said Lewellyn, who wasn’t hurt.

“They dragged someone out from the rubble and I sat with him and I held his hand and I was (telling him) ‘It’s going to be OK.’ I didn’t really know much else what to do.”

A tornado also killed a woman and critically injured three other people in Madison County, Alabama, emergency services worker Don Webster told WAFF-TV.

The tornado in Little Rock tore first through neighbourhoods in the western part of the Arkansas capital and shredded a small shopping centre that included a Kroger grocery store. It then crossed the Arkansas River into North Little Rock and surrounding cities, where widespread damage was reported to homes, businesses and vehicles.

Little Rock resident Niki Scott took cover in the bathroom after her husband called to warn her of a tornado. She could hear glass shattering and emerged to find that her house was one of the few on her street that didn’t have a tree on it.

“It’s just like everyone says. It got really quiet, then it got really loud,” Scott said afterward, as chainsaws roared and sirens blared.

In the evening, officials in Pulaski County announced a confirmed fatality in North Little Rock.

Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders activated 100 members of the National Guard to help local authorities respond throughout the state.

The unrelenting tornadoes continued touched down in the region into the night.

The police department in Covington, Tennessee, said on Facebook that the west Tennessee city was impassable after power lines and trees fell on roads when the storm passed through Friday evening. Authorities in Tipton County, north of Memphis, said a tornado appeared to have touched down near the middle school in Covington and in other locations in the rural county.

Tipton County Sheriff Shannon Beasley said on Facebook that homes and structures were severely damaged.

Tornadoes also caused sporadic damage in eastern Iowa. One veered just west of Iowa City, home to the University of Iowa. Video from KCRG-TV showed toppled power poles and roofs ripped off an apartment building in the suburb of Coralville and significantly damaged homes in the city of Hills.

Nearly 90,000 customers in Arkansas lost power, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks outages. Outages were also reported in Iowa, Missouri, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Indiana and Texas.

In Illinois, Ben Wagner, chief radar operator for the Woodford County Emergency Management Agency, said hail broke windows on cars and buildings in the area of Roanoke, northeast of Peoria. More than 109,000 customers had lost power in the state as of Friday night.

There were more confirmed twisters in Iowa, wind-whipped grass fires in Oklahoma, and blizzard conditions in the Upper Midwest as the storm system threatened a broad swath of the country home to some 85 million people.

Fire crews battled several blazes near El Dorado, Kansas, and some residents were asked to evacuate, including about 250 elementary school children who were relocated to a high school.

Top News Today

Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.