updateTornadoes and severe storms that hit the southern and midwestern United States have killed at least 21 and injured dozens. Seven deaths were confirmed in the state of Tennessee, CNN reports. The media is talking about a rare “monstrous storm system” stretching from the south to the Great Lakes region in the north.
Dozens of tornadoes were recorded in seven states in the past 24 hours. At least five people have been killed in Arkansas, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at a news conference. She declared a state of emergency and mobilized the National Guard.
Residents of the state capital of Little Rock woke up to blown-out cars, uprooted trees, snapped telephone poles and destroyed homes. The town of Wynne, in the northeastern part of the state, has been “de facto sliced in half by the damage,” Mayor Jennifer Hobbs told CNN.
Concert hall roof collapsed
In the northern US, in the small town of Belvidere, Illinois, the roof of the Apollo Theater partially collapsed during a heavy metal concert. Shawn Schadle, chief of the Belvidere Fire Department, said one was killed and 28 injured. Five of them were hospitalized with serious injuries. At the time of the collapses, a storm was raging with gusts of up to 145 kilometers per hour.
In neighboring Indiana, three people were killed by a storm in Sullivan County. Two people died in Alabama and Mississippi.
Hundreds of thousands of families without power
Hundreds of thousands of homes are without power in Indiana, Ohio, Arkansas and Illinois, according to the US specialist website Poweroutage. Dozens of people have been hospitalized. Many roads are still inaccessible.
A week earlier, powerful storms battered the southeastern US. At least 26 people were killed. A nighttime tornado almost flattened the entire community of Rolling Fork, Mississippi. The winds there reached an estimated maximum speed of 273 kilometers per hour.
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