At least 15 dead after severe weather carves path of ruin across multiple states in the South

VALLEY VIEW, Texas — Powerful storms killed at least 15 people, injured hundreds and left a wide trail of destruction across Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas on Sunday after destroying homes and destroying a truck stop where dozens of people sought shelter in a restroom in the latest deadly weather to hit the country. hit central US.

The storms inflicted their greatest damage on a region stretching from northern 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. Forecasters said the greatest risk would shift eastward on Monday, covering a wide 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 ripped through a rural area near a mobile home park on Saturday evening, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said at a news conference on Sunday. Among the dead were two children aged 2 and 5. Three family members were found dead in one home, according to the sheriff’s office.

Storms also killed two people and destroyed homes in Oklahoma, where guests at an outdoor wedding were among the injured, and five people in Arkansas. Tens of thousands of residents were without power throughout the region.

In Texas, about 100 people were injured and more than 200 homes and structures were destroyed, Abbott said, sitting outside a destroyed truck stop near the small farming community of Valley View. The area was one of the hardest hit, with wind speeds estimated to have reached 137 miles per hour, officials said.

“The hopes and dreams of Texas families and small businesses have literally been crushed storm after storm,” said Abbott, whose state has seen back-to-back 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 ripped the building’s roof and walls, mangled metal beams and left battered cars in the parking lot.

“A firefighter came to check on us and said, ‘You’re very lucky,’” Parra said. “The best way to describe this is the wind tried to rip us out of the bathrooms.”

Several people were transported by ambulance and helicopter to hospitals in Denton County, also north of Dallas.

No more deaths are expected and no one has been reported missing in Texas, Abbott said, although emergency responders were conducting another round of searches just to be sure.

At least five people were killed in Arkansas, including 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. Another person died in Benton County, and two more bodies were found in Marion County. In Oklahoma, two people died in Mayes County, east of Tulsa, officials said.

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

The devastation continued a grim month of deadly severe weather in the center of the country.

Tornadoes in Iowa left at least five dead and dozens injured last week. 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 in the country on record.

Meteorologists and authorities issued urgent warnings to take cover as the storms marched through the region late Saturday and Sunday. “If you are in the path of this storm, take cover now!” the National Weather Service office in Norman, Oklahoma, posted on X.

Harold Brooks, a senior scientist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, said a persistent pattern of warm, moist air is to blame for the string of tornadoes over the past two months.

Brooks recommended that travelers traveling 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 necessities should probably think about what I can do if there is 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 pacing and assessing the damage. Nearby, neighbors sat on the foundation of a destroyed house.

In Valley View, near the truck stop, the storms tore the roofs off homes and blew out windows. Clothing, insulation, bits of plastic and other debris were wrapped around miles of barbed wire around rural pastures.

Kevin Dorantes, 20, was in nearby Carrollton when he heard the tornado hit the Valley View neighborhood, where he lived with his father and brother. He called them both and told them to take cover in the windowless bathroom, where they rode out the storm and survived unscathed.

As Dorantes wandered the neighborhood of downed power lines and destroyed homes, he came across a family whose home had been reduced to a pile of splintered rubble. A 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. “The father’s leg was broken.”

The severe weather knocked out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses in the storms’ path.

Late Sunday, more than 80,000 customers in Arkansas were without power. In neighboring Missouri, more than 90,000 people were also without power. Texas reported 27,000 outages, while Oklahoma reported 3,000, 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 being “shut down” due to the damage.

The system that caused the latest severe weather was expected to move east through the remainder of the holiday weekend.

The Indianapolis 500 started four hours late after a strong storm moved into 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 will move to 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.