Storms sweeping through the southern Plains and Ozark Mountains have killed at least 21 people in four US states since Monday afternoon and destroyed hundreds of buildings, as forecasters warned of more severe weather.
The death toll over the three-day Memorial Day holiday weekend included at least eight deaths in Arkansas, seven in Texas, four in Kentucky and two in Oklahoma, according to counts by state emergency authorities.
A severe thunderstorm watch had been issued for parts of New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania by Monday night, the National Weather Service said. The watch was in effect for more than 30 million people in the Northeast as the storms were expected to move up that stretch of the East Coast.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency early Monday. The weather service, opens new tab, has issued a severe storm watch for the Atlanta area and other parts of Georgia and several counties in western South Carolina until at least Monday afternoon.
“It was a tough night for our people,” Beshear posted on social media platform X on Monday. He later told a press conference that devastating storms had hit almost the entire state. The storms damaged 100 state highways and roads, officials said.
At least seven people were killed – including a family’s 2-year-old and 5-year-old – and nearly 100 were injured Saturday night when a powerful tornado ripped through communities in North Texas near the Oklahoma border, Gov. Greg Abbott said. press conference on Sunday.
Late Sunday, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at least eight people had died in her state after the storms. An Arkansas man suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease died from lack of oxygen when the power went out.
President Joe Biden expressed condolences for the lives lost when he spoke Monday with Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and Governors Abbott and Sanders, the White House said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency was on the ground conducting damage assessments with state and local counterparts, the White House said, adding that Biden directed federal agencies to provide support as needed.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans were without power Monday due to the weather, according to the monitoring site PowerOutage.US. In Kentucky alone, more than 160,000 customers were without power.
In some areas, it could take days to restore power, Kentucky Gov. Beshear said in a news briefing.
The weather service warned that additional storms will move through the Ohio and Tennessee valleys, bringing damaging winds, large hail and more tornadoes, as well as heavy rainfall that can cause flash flooding.
The latest extreme weather comes just days after a powerful tornado ripped through an Iowa town, killing four people, and more tornadoes touched down in Texas last week.
The US is bracing for what government forecasters have called a potentially “exceptional” 2024 Atlantic hurricane season that begins next Saturday.
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