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WINE, Arkansas (AP) — A storm that probably brought dozens of tornadoes killed at least 21 people in small towns and large cities in the South and Midwest, tore a road through the Arkansas state capital, and ripped through Illinois. The roof of a packed concert venue collapsed. , and great people all over the area Saturday of the damage range.
Confirmed or suspected tornadoes in at least eight states have destroyed homes and businesses, uprooted trees, and destroyed large areas of the country. The deaths included seven in one of his counties in Tennessee, four in the small town of Wynn, Arkansas, three in Sullivan, Indiana, and four in Illinois.
Deaths were also reported in Alabama and Mississippi from Friday night through Saturday, while city officials said more than 2,600 buildings were in the tornado’s path near Little Rock, Arkansas. increase.
Residents of Wynn, a community of about 8,000 people located 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Memphis, Tennessee, woke up Saturday to find their high school roof shredded and windows blown out. bottom. A huge tree lay on the ground, its stump turned into a hump. Broken walls, windows and roofs hit homes and businesses.
Debris and memories of everyday life littered the interiors of damaged houses and lawns. clothes, insulation, roofing paper, toys, broken furniture, his pickup truck with shattered windows.
Ashley McMillan said her husband and children huddled with their dog in a tiny bathroom as the tornado passed by and “we thought we were dead, so we prayed and said goodbye to each other.” . The house was destroyed by a fallen tree, but the family was not injured.
“I could feel the house shaking, I could hear loud noises and plates rattling, and it just calmed down,” she said.
Recovery was already underway, with workers using chainsaws to cut down fallen trees and bulldozers moving material from the shattered structure. A utility truck worked to restore power.
At least seven people have died in McNairy County, Tennessee, east of Memphis along the Mississippi border, said Adamsville Mayor David Leckner.
“Most of the damage was to homes and residential areas,” Reckner said, adding that while it appeared that everyone had been identified, the crew had been going door to door.
In Belvidere, Illinois, some of the 260 attendees at a heavy metal concert at the Apollo Theater pulled a 50-year-old man out of the rubble after part of the roof collapsed. . He was dead when paramedics arrived. Authorities said 40 people were injured, including two with life-threatening injuries.
“When someone was dragged out of the rubble, I sat with him, held his hand, and said, ‘It’s okay.’ I really didn’t know what else to do. I did,” concertgoer Gabriel Llewellyn told WTVO-TV.
According to the venue’s Facebook page, the bands scheduled to perform were Morbid Angel, Crypta, Skeletal Remains, and Revocation.
Crews worked to clean up around the Apollo on Saturday as the forklift pulled loose hanging bricks.
On April 21, 1967, after a particularly violent tornado hit a rural town, killing 24 people, opposite and below the Apollo were oversized black-and-white photographs of schoolchildren battling strong winds and rain. There was a wall painting.
In Crawford County, Illinois, three people were killed and eight injured in a tornado near New Hebron, county commissioner Bill Burke said.
Sheriff Bill Rutan said between 60 and 100 families had been forced from their homes.
“There were paramedics digging people out of the basement as the house collapsed, but luckily they were able to get to a safe place,” Rutan said at a press conference.
Illinois Rep. Adam Niemagh called the tornado “devastating.”
The tornado wasn’t far from where three people died in Sullivan County, Indiana, about 95 miles (150 kilometers) southwest of Indianapolis.
Sullivan City Mayor Clint Lamb said at a press conference that the area south of the county seat of about 4,000 people was “currently essentially unrecognizable” and that several had been rescued from the debris overnight. There were reports that 12 people were injured, and search and rescue teams scoured the affected area, he said.
“Frankly, I’m really, really shocked. There are no more man-made problems,” he said, adding that recovery “is going to be a very long process.”
At least one person was killed and more than 50 injured in the Little Rock area, officials said.
According to the National Weather Service, tornadoes are EF3 twisters of the highest order, with wind speeds of up to 265 miles (265 kilometers) and paths as long as 25 miles (40 kilometers).
Masoud Shahed-Ghaznavi was having lunch at his home when a tornado hit his neighborhood, causing a slab of rock to fall on his head and shatter his windows, so he hid in the laundry room. The house was mostly rubble when he appeared.
“Everything around me is empty,” recalls Shahed-Ghaznavi. He slept very little on Friday night.
“When I closed my eyes, I couldn’t sleep thinking I was here,” he said outside his home on Saturday.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard to help local responders.
A woman has died in a suspected tornado in Madison County, Alabama, county official Mac McCutcheon said. And in Pontotoc County, northern Mississippi, officials confirmed one death and four injuries to her.
Storm strikes just hours after President Joe Biden visits In the Rolling Fork community of Mississippi, a tornado destroyed part of the town last week.
Tornadoes also caused damage in eastern Iowa, breaking windows of cars and buildings northeast of Peoria, Illinois.
Determining the exact number of tornadoes could take days, said Bill Bunting, director of forecasting operations at the Storm Prediction Center. There have also been hundreds of reports of massive hail and destructive winds, he said.
“It’s a very active day,” he said. “But it’s not unprecedented.”
Hundreds of thousands of people lost power due to a vast storm system that brought wildfires to the southern plains and blizzard conditions to the Upper Midwest. Tornado and hail threats remained in the Northeast, including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and New York.
PowerOutage.us said more than 530,000 homes and businesses in the affected areas lost power at noon Saturday, 200,000 of them in Ohio.
Parts of Minnesota, the Dakota, and Wisconsin were hit by blizzards, cutting off tens of thousands of power supplies in the Twin Cities area. A portion of Interstate 29 has been closed.
Nearly 100 new wildfires were reported in Oklahoma on Friday, according to the State Forest Service. The fire was expected to remain dangerous until next week.
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DeMillo reported from Little Rock. The report was contributed by AP writers across the country, including his Harm Venhuizen of Belvidere, Illinois, and Corey Williams of Detroit.
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