Washington (EFE).- At least 26 people have died from the strong tornadoes that have hit the Midwest and South of the United States, leaving thousands of homes destroyed, tens of thousands of homes without electricity and even causing the roof of a house to collapse. concert hall.
The exact death toll is unknown and could rise in the coming hours as emergency services in the hardest-hit states hit the streets to assess the damage and find survivors, sometimes even going door-to-door.
So far, local authorities have confirmed the deaths of twelve people in Tennessee, five in Arkansas, four in Illinois, three in Indiana, one in Alabama, and one more dead in Mississippi.
Tornadoes, which struck the Midwestern and southern US on Friday night, have left a trail of devastation in their wake with trees and power poles torn from the ground, as well as destroyed homes that have become piles of rubble, according to the images shown by the country’s televisions.
Tornado damage in Arkansas
Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas, is one of the most affected cities and at least 2,600 homes have been damaged, according to a statement from the City Council.
Another of the most affected towns in Arkansas is Wynne, with 8,000 inhabitants, and where strong winds destroyed the roof and windows of the institute and also damaged homes and businesses.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Deanne Criswell, who is coordinating the federal response to the disaster, will tour these two Arkansas municipalities today to assess the damage, Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott announced on Twitter. , Jr.
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders has mobilized 100 National Guard Reserve Corps members to respond to the disaster and has declared a state of emergency to put state resources to use for search efforts.
In addition, Sanders asked US President Joe Biden on Saturday to declare the events a disaster so that Arkansas can access federal government resources.
The governors of Indiana and Kentucky, Eric Holcomb and Andy Beshear, respectively, have also declared a state of emergency to put their state’s resources at the service of the rescue and cleanup efforts.
Affectations in electricity
In northern Illinois, the tornadoes left a scene of “absolute chaos,” in the words of Belvidere Police Chief Shane Woody, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Specifically, the tornadoes caused the roof of a theater where 260 people were attending a heavy metal concert to partially collapse, leaving at least one person dead and 28 injured, according to the Belvidere fire department.
Apart from the human and infrastructure damage, the tornadoes have meant that some 27,000 homes in Arkansas and another 17,000 in Tennessee, two of the most affected states, remain without electricity this Sunday, according to data from the PowerOutage.us website, which monitors this service.
According to the National Weather Service, the storms could continue into the next week.
Especially dangerous could be Tuesday, when lightning storms are expected in parts of Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, among other southern and Midwestern states, according to the National Weather Service.
Tornadoes have hit the Midwest and South of the country just hours after Biden last Friday visited the town of Rolling Fork (Mississippi), which was devastated last week when a series of strong tornadoes hit the region, leaving 26 dead.