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- Thomas Mackintosh
- BBC news
Watch people sift through debris at the Apollo Theater in Belvidere, Illinois
One person was killed and dozens injured after a storm collapsed the roof of a theater at a packed heavy metal gig in Illinois on Friday.
About 260 people were in Belvidere’s Apollo Theater when the roof collapsed at 19:55 local time (01:05 BST).
Fire Chief Sean Shaddle said five people were in serious condition.
A series of violent tornadoes hit several US states on Friday, killing at least 11 people in total.
Deaths have been reported not only in Illinois, but also in Arkansas, Alabama, Indiana and Mississippi.
In Arkansas’ capital city of Little Rock, a massive tornado ripped through the city, overturning cars, destroying roofs and uprooting trees.
Parts of the South and Midwest also reported heavy damage, with Arkansas and Missouri declaring states of emergency. Thousands of people lost power.
More than 40 tornadoes were reported in seven states on Friday night, according to the US government’s Center for Storm Prediction.
Several flights at Chicago O’Hare International Airport have been delayed or canceled as passengers were told to evacuate due to what was described as “bad weather.”
image source, Getty Images
Residents of Rolling Fork, Mississippi, clean up after tornado devastation on March 31
In Tennessee, Covington Mayor Jan Hensley begged people not to drive around as power lines were hit by a storm.
Mrs. Huckabee Sanders deployed the National Guard after what she described as “significant damage” in central Arkansas.
As of 20:30 local time, more than 70,000 people were without power in her state, according to the U.S. Power Outage website.
Friday night’s deadly tornado comes just a week after a rare long-track twister killed 26 people in Mississippi. President Joe Biden traveled to the state on Friday to offer his condolences and promise federal help.
In a bulletin, the Storm Prediction Center warned that some of the predicted tornadoes could track across the ground over long distances.
Last week’s Mississippi tornado traveled 59 miles (94 km) and lasted about 1 hour and 10 minutes. This was an unusually long time for the storm to last. About 2,000 homes were damaged, officials said.
Additional reporting by Tiffany Wertheimer.
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