at least 21 people died in the southern and central United States as tornadoes and severe storms destroyed homes and businesses, according to the latest government count.
Tennessee The death toll from severe weather in McNary County, east of Memphis, has risen to seven, Maggie Hannan, a spokeswoman for the state’s disaster management agency, told AFP.
Their number is added to another 14 victims in the states. Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabamain the American South, as well as in countries Indiana and Illinoisin the central-eastern part of the country.
Little Rock, the state capital of Arkansas, was particularly hard hit. Residents witnessed devastation: overturned cars, uprooted huge trees, broken telecommunications poles and even destroyed houses. At least five people have died in the state, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
“We know that many people have been displaced and are seeking shelter,” Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott said. Sanders, who said she spoke with President Joe Biden yesterday, declared a state of emergency and deployed about 100 National Guard troops.
Mississippi authorities, for their part, announced one dead and several injured in Pontotok County, about 200 km south of Memphis.
An elderly man also died in Alabama when a tornado tore through his home, officials in Huntsville, near the state line with Tennessee, said.
In the northern part of the country, in the small town of Belvidere, west of Chicago in Illinois, part of the roof and facade of the theater collapsed due to a severe storm during a musical concert.
Belvidere Fire Chief Sean Saddle said one person was killed and 28 were injured, five of them in serious condition.
In Crawford County, three people died in a house collapse, said Kevin Schur, a spokesman for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.
In neighboring Indiana, authorities said three people died as a result of the storm in Sullivan County. More than 650,000 households were left without electricity in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia yesterday, according to the US website PowerOutage.
Source: AFP, APE-MPE.
Source: Kathimerini
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