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Powerful Storms Leave Death And Destruction In Central US

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

AUSTIN, USA (Worthy News) – Millions of Americans prepared for a nightmarish night uncertain about their future or that of their loved ones after powerful storms killed at least 15 people, injured hundreds, and left a wide trail of destruction across the U.S. states of Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.

The storms obliterated homes, shops, and even a truck stop where dozens sought shelter in a restroom during the latest deadly weather to strike the central U.S.

Experts said the storms inflicted their worst damage in a region from north of Dallas to the northwest corner of Arkansas.

However, just before nightfall, the system threatened to bring more violent weather to other parts of the Midwest later in the day.

By Monday, forecasters said, the most significant risk would shift to the east, covering a broad swath of the country from Alabama to near New York City.

Seven deaths were reported in Cooke County, Texas, near the Oklahoma border, where a tornado Saturday night plowed through a rural area near a mobile home park, Texas Governor Greg Abbott told reporters. The dead included two children, ages 2 and 5.

Three family members were found dead in one home, according to the county sheriff.

MORE DEATHS

Storms also killed two people and destroyed houses in Oklahoma, where the injured included guests at an outdoor wedding, five people in Arkansas, and one person in Kentucky. Tens of thousands of residents were without power across the region.

At least five people were killed in Arkansas. One was a 26-year-old woman who was found dead outside a destroyed home in Olvey, a small community in Boone County, said the county’s emergency management office.

One person died in Benton County, and two more bodies were found in Marion County, officials said.

In Oklahoma, two people died in Mayes County, east of Tulsa, according to authorities.

In Kentucky, a man was killed Sunday in Louisville when a tree fell on him, police said. Louisville Mayor Craig Greenburg confirmed it was a storm-related death on social media.

The destruction continued a grim month of deadly severe weather in the nation’s midsection.

Tornadoes in Iowa last week left at least five people dead and dozens injured, while April had the second-highest number of tornadoes on record in the country.

PICKING UP PIECES

Much of the destruction this weekend occurred in Texas, where besides those killed, about 100 people were injured and more than 200 homes and structures destroyed, said Abbott, sitting in front of a ravaged truck stop near the small agricultural community of Valley View.

The area was among the most brutal hit, with winds reaching an estimated 135 miles per hour (217 kilometers per hour).

Fernando Cristan walked Sunday afternoon up and down around what used to be Distinguished Customs, a restoration and modification shop.

Now, reporters saw a pile of rubble and classic cars behind the Shell gas station on Lone Oak Road in Valley View.

Cristan was working on two Corvettes there. He points them out, one black and one a faded yellow. “Those are two ‘63 Corvettes [cars] I was working on,” he said. “They were being restored and modified. They would have been worth half a million each.”

Now they’re buried under metal beams and roofing and insulation and plywood after a tornado ripped through Valley View and Cooke County on Saturday, killing and injuring many.

“As Cristan walked back down what used to be the side wall of the shop, the wind moved disjointed bars and sheet metal, filling the area with a cacophony of screeching, moaning metal,” a local reporter noticed.

Perhaps there was some hope: While the building collapsed, an office set up remains with desks and rolling chairs seemingly unmoved even as the walls and roof were torn away.

And Cristan was still standing, picking up the pieces.