After a series of violent storms and tornadoes in the US, the death toll has risen to at least 26, according to local media and authorities. Dozens were also injured. Nine people were killed in the McNairy district in Tennessee alone, the responsible sheriff’s office reported Saturday evening. The victims were found in collapsed buildings.
Five other fatalities were reported from Arkansas and four from Illinois. People also died in the storms in Indiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Delaware, it was said.
50 hurricanes in seven US states
More than 50 cyclones that could be classified as tornadoes were counted in seven states, especially in the south and midwest of the country, according to the weather service.
According to data from poweroutage.us, tens of thousands of homes were without power at least temporarily. Media spoke of a rare “monstrous storm system” stretching from the southern United States to the Great Lakes region in the north.
Roof collapsed during concert
In the small town of Belvidere, Illinois, the roof of an event building partially collapsed during a severe storm during a death metal concert attended by 260 people. A 50-year-old man died and 40 people were injured, a senior Boone County emergency official said.
At the time of the collapse, a storm was raging with wind gusts of up to 145 kilometers per hour. Belvidere has about 25,000 inhabitants and is located more than 100 kilometers from Chicago.
The White House said on Saturday that US President Joe Biden has spoken with the governor of Arkansas, as well as the mayors of Little Rock and Wynne. He also had contact with the civil protection authority Fema.
Bidens traveled to Mississippi
A tornado killed at least 26 people in the states of Mississippi and Alabama a week ago. On Friday, Biden and his wife Jill visited the small town of Rolling Fork, Mississippi, which was particularly hard hit by the storm.
The Bidens got a sense of the destruction in the 2,000-resident community and met with the city’s mayor and affected residents, among others. “You are not alone,” Biden said amid the rubble of destroyed homes and uprooted trees. “The American people will stand by you. It will help you get through this – and so will I.”
Source: Krone
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