At least 21 dead after tornadoes tore through South, Midwest
Deadly tornadoes left a path of destruction throughout the South and the Midwest late Friday, killing at least 21 people and leaving many more injured.
Preliminary reports indicate that possibly dozens of tornadoes touched down in at least seven states, destroying homes and businesses, downing trees, flipping over cars and knocking down power lines.
Seven people died in one Tennessee county, four died in the small town of Wynne, Ark., and three deaths were reported in Sullivan, Ind.
Other fatalities were reported in Illinois, Alabama and Mississippi.
Sullivan Mayor Clint Lamb told reporters Saturday morning that nearly 200 structures in the county were damaged by the storms, which he called “absolutely unbelievable, like nothing I’ve ever witnessed.”
Wynne, a city of around 8,200, located about 50 miles west of Memphis, Tenn., lost power and its roads were covered by debris, Wynne City Councilmember Lisa Powell Carter said.
“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.”
In Belvidere Ill., high winds caused a roof to collapse at the Apollo Theater, where hundreds of people gathered to see a performance of the heavy metal band Morbid Angel. A 50-year-old man died and 40 were injured, including two with life-threatening injuries, authorities said.
Concertgoers rushed to lift the collapsed ceiling. “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,” Gabrielle Lewellyn, who had just entered the theater, told local television station WTVO.
In both Madison County, Ala. and Pontotoc County, Miss., one person died and several others were injured.
One person was killed and more than two dozen were hurt in the Little Rock area, authorities said.
The “impact is devastating,” Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott told CNN on Saturday. “Literally, in a matter of minutes, it went through the entire western portion of the city of Little Rock. … It just came out of nowhere.”
The devastation comes just a week after severe weather killed at least 26 people in the Deep South. The deadly tornadoes left a 170-mile path of destruction, wiping out large parts of the Mississippi towns of Rolling Fork and Silver City.
With News Wire Services
