In Arkansas, a devastating tornado killed at least five people and injured nearly 30 others, according to the disaster management service of this rural state in the southern US. Residents of the capital, Little Rock, woke up Saturday to overturned cars, large uprooted trees, broken telephone poles and burned homes.
The city of Little Rock, Arkansas was particularly hard hit.
Benjamin Crain/AFP
The city of Vine, in the northeastern part of the state, was “basically cut in half from east to west,” Mayor Jennifer Hobbs told CNN. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier in the day declared a state of emergency and deployed about 100 National Guardsmen.
The tornado left a scene of devastation in its wake, with overturned cars, large uprooted trees, broken telephone poles and collapsed houses.
Laura Farrar, a reporter for a local business publication, said by phone she was “absolutely shocked” by the damage near her home in Little Rock. “The roofs of some buildings were completely blown off,” he testified, sharing images of destroyed houses, partially collapsed walls and trees on the ground. “The neighborhood was completely destroyed and destroyed,” he added, noting significant destruction on a 500-meter-wide strip, but outside there was “very little damage.”
In full concert
In the north of the country, in Belvidere, a small town west of Chicago in the state of Illinois, part of the roof and facade of the Apollo Theater collapsed during the passage of a violent storm. According to local media, a concert by a heavy metal band was in progress.
Belvidere Fire Chief Shawn Schadl reported one death and 28 injuries, including five hospitalized with serious injuries. According to the local press more than twenty ambulances were mobilized.
Television footage showed injured spectators being carried out on stretchers, and photos on social media showed a waist-high pile of debris and a hole in the roof of the venue.
In neighboring Indiana (to the north), three people were killed by the storm in Sullivan County, WTHI TV reported, citing Indiana police. Mississippi Disaster Management Services reported one death and several injuries in Pontotoc County, about 200 miles south of Memphis. Tennessee has had seven deaths due to severe weather, all in McNairy County, east of Memphis, said Maggie Hannon, spokeswoman for the state’s Disaster Management Agency.
An elderly man in Alabama was killed when a tornado tore through his home, officials in the town of Huntsville, near the Tennessee border, said.
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