ARKANSAS-Devastating storms and tornadoes scraped the South and Midwest Friday into early Saturday, killing at least 10 people, injuring dozens more, trapping others in their homes, and damaging businesses and critical infrastructure – with the threat of more severe weather looming into Saturday afternoon.
More than 50 preliminary tornado reports were recorded Friday in at least seven states, including in Arkansas, where storms killed five people – four in the small city of Wynne and another person in North Little Rock, local officials said. Three people were killed in Indiana by a storm Friday night that damaged homes and a volunteer fire department near Sullivan, a city about a 95-mile drive southwest of Indianapolis, State Police Sgt. Matt Ames said.
In Madison County, Alabama, one person died and five were injured overnight, officials said during a news conference Saturday morning.
In Pontotoc County, Mississippi, one person died and four others were injured, according to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. At least 50 people were sent to hospitals in Arkansas’ Pulaski County, where a tornado roared through the Little Rock area Friday, county spokesperson Madeline Roberts said. Five others were hospitalized after a tornado touched down Friday in Covington, Tennessee, according to a spokesperson for Baptist Memorial Health Care.
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Roads were left impassable. In Little Rock, the “impact is devastating,” 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.”
At last 2,100 residents in the pathway of the tornado were affected, he said. Neighborhoods and commercial businesses were flattened.
More than 30,000 people are still without power, he said.
Preliminary information shows at least 22 tornadoes were reported in Illinois, eight in Iowa, four in Tennessee, five in Wisconsin and a couple in Mississippi.