VALLEY VIEW, Texas – Severe storms killed at least 15 people, injured hundreds and left a wide trail of destruction Sunday in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, after destroying homes and destroying a truck stop where dozens sought shelter in a bathroom during the latest deadly weather to hit the central region of the USA.
The storms inflicted their worst damage on a region stretching from north of Dallas to the northwest corner of Arkansas, and the system threatened to bring more violent weather to other parts of the Midwest later in the day. On Monday, forecasters said, the greatest risk would shift eastward, covering a wide swath of the country, from Alabama to near New York City.
Seven deaths were reported in Cooke County, Texas, near the border with Oklahoma, where a tornado Saturday night touched down in a rural area near a mobile home park, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said at a news conference Sunday. The dead included two children, aged 2 and 5. Three family members were found dead in a home, according to the county sheriff.
The storms also killed two people and destroyed homes in Oklahoma, where those injured included guests at an outdoor wedding, five people in Arkansas and one person in Kentucky. Tens of thousands of residents were left without power across the region.
In Texas, about 100 people were injured and more than 200 homes and structures were destroyed, Abbott said, sitting in front of a devastated truck stop near the small farming community of Valley View. The area was one of the hardest hit, with winds reaching around 217 km/h, officials said.
“The hopes and dreams of Texas families and small businesses have been literally crushed by storm after storm,” said Abbott, whose state has suffered successive bouts of severe weather, including storms that killed eight people in Houston.
Hugo Parra, who lives in Farmers Branch, north of Dallas, said he rode out the storm with 40 to 50 people in the truck stop bathroom. The storm destroyed the building’s roof and walls, destroying metal beams and leaving damaged cars in the parking lot.
“A firefighter came to see us and said, ‘You guys are so lucky,’” Parra said. “The best way to describe it is that the wind tried to rip us out of the bathrooms.”
Several people were transported to hospitals by ambulance and helicopter in Denton County, also north of Dallas.
No more deaths are expected and no one has been reported missing in Texas, Abbott said, although response teams were doing another round of searches as a precaution.
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, according to Daniel Bolen of the county’s emergency management office. One person died in Benton County and two more bodies were found in Marion County, authorities said.
In Oklahoma, two people died in Mayes County, east of Tulsa, officials said.
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 severe and deadly weather in the central region of the country.
Tornadoes in Iowa last week left at least five dead and dozens injured. The deadly tornadoes emerged during a historically bad season for tornadoes, at a time when climate change is contributing to the severity of storms around the world. April had the second highest number of tornadoes ever recorded in the country.
Meteorologists and authorities issued urgent warnings to seek cover as storms moved through the region on Saturday night and Sunday. “If you are in the path of this storm, take cover now!” the National Weather Service office in Norman, Oklahoma, posted at
Harold Brooks, senior scientist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, said a persistent pattern of warm, moist air is to blame for the series of tornadoes over the past two months.
Brooks recommended that travelers passing through threatened areas over Memorial Day weekend have a plan for a weather emergency.
Travelers who have already chosen where to get food and other essentials “should probably be thinking about what I could do if there was a dangerous situation to save my life,” Brooks said.
Residents woke up on Sunday to overturned cars and collapsed garages. Some residents could be seen walking around and assessing the damage. Nearby, neighbors sat on the foundation of a destroyed house.
In Valley View, near the truck stop, storms tore roofs off homes and blew out windows. Clothing, insulation, pieces of plastic and other debris were wrapped around miles of barbed wire fencing around rural pastures.
Kevin Dorantes, 20, was in nearby Carrollton when he heard the tornado was hitting the Valley View neighborhood, where he lived with his father and brother. He called the two and told them to take shelter in the windowless bathroom, where they braved the storm and survived unharmed.
As Dorantes wandered through the neighborhood of downed power lines and devastated homes, he came across a family whose home was reduced to a pile of shattered rubble. Father and son were trapped under the rubble and friends and neighbors rushed to get them out, Dorantes said.
“They were conscious but seriously injured,” Dorantes said. “Father’s leg was broken.”
The severe weather cut power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses in the path of the storms.
By late Sunday, more than 80,000 customers in Arkansas were without power. In neighboring Missouri, more than 90,000 were also left without power. Texas reported 27,000 outages, while 3,000 were reported in Oklahoma, according to the tracking website poweroutage.us.
Inaccessible roads and downed power lines in Oklahoma also prompted officials in the city of Claremore, near Tulsa, to announce on social media that the city was “closed” due to the damage.
The system causing the latest severe weather was expected to move eastward through the rest of the holiday weekend.
The Indianapolis 500 started four hours late after a severe storm hit the area, forcing Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials to evacuate about 125,000 race fans.
More severe storms were forecast in Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee.
The risk of severe weather hits North Carolina and Virginia on Monday, forecasters said.
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Associated Press reporters Sophia Tareen in Chicago; Kathy McCormack in Concord, NH; Acacia Coronado in Austin, Texas; Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Jesse Bedayn in Denver contributed to this report.
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