Memorial Day Weekend tornados leave at least six people dead as storms strike Texas and Oklahoma area, leaving 400K without power
At least six people, including children, were killed after a tornado ripped through northeast Texas over Memorial Day weekend.
The fatalities occurred in Cooke County, Texas, with three deaths in one household during the devastating twister, Sheriff Ray Sappington told CNN.
As of Sunday morning, two additional children in the area are missing and 20 people have been injured, NBC Dallas Fort Worth reported.
Across the central US, the storm has knocked out power to nearly 400,000 people and warned more than 110 million Americans of the disastrous fronts.
Sappington said most of the deaths in Texas occurred at a manufactured home community called FRF Estates in Valley View, where crews continue to conduct search and rescue operations amid “extensive damage,” WFAA reported.
A gigantic tornado will form in Windhorst, Texas on Saturday. Twisters would then move through areas around the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth in the northeastern part of the state
Pictured: The gas station in Valley View, Texas where 60 to 80 people took shelter during the tornado on Saturday evening
The Shell gas station was part of the AP Travel Center, where dozens of people drove to on Saturday night to hide from the tornado. A total of five people were reported dead in Cooke County
A car at the gas station is severely damaged by the twister
The tornado also destroyed the AP Travel Center in Valley View, where 60 to 80 people had driven to take shelter in the parking lot, bathrooms or the Shell gas station that has since been reduced to rubble by the storm.
Outside of Cooke County, millions of Americans in central Mississippi and the Ohio and Tennessee River valleys are at risk of large hail storms, high-speed winds and tornadoes.
People in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas also suffered from extreme weather on Saturday night, leaving more than 250,000 homes in the Plains and surrounding areas without power.
Currently, more than 400,000 customers in the lower US are without electricity, with the hardest hit areas being Arkansas and Missouri.
Stormy weather is moving east away from Texas and Oklahoma and into the Ohio River Valley states, which has activated a new tornado watch for parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee until 10 a.m. CT, according to NOAA Storm Prediction Center.
Kentucky and Tennessee are beginning to be hit by power outages, with more than 67,000 customers losing electricity.
More than 15 million Americans are at increased risk from storms, most of them in major population centers like Indianapolis, Nashville and Cincinnati.
Meanwhile, local officials in Texas are picking up the pieces and continuing to search for possible victims.
Sappington told WFAA Sunday morning that he expects the number of deaths in Cooke County “to rise.”
A decimated building at Marina Circle on Lake Ray Roberts in Denton County, Texas
A tornado ripped through this parking lot north of Denton, Texas
Debris is scattered in this parking lot and a man is seen wandering through the damage early Sunday morning
Denton County, Texas experienced a possible tornado that injured an unknown number of residents, flipped 18-wheelers and downed trees and power lines, according to local officials.
The nearly 80 people at the AP Travel Center in Valley View were trapped until the storm moved further east, Sappington said.
Some of the 20 total injured were at the travel center gas station, but none of the injuries were life-threatening.
People’s vehicles in the travel center parking lot were damaged or destroyed, leaving about 40 people stranded. Eventually a bus arrived and took them somewhere else so they could be picked up by relatives.
Other parts of Texas around the Dallas Fort Worth area saw catastrophic destruction, including nearby Denton County, where a possible tornado injured an unknown number of residents, flipped 18-wheelers and downed trees and power lines, CNN reported.
Officials responded to a range of different locations, including “homes and trailer parks,” Denton County spokesperson Dawn Cobb said in a news release.
Several homes in the neighboring town of Celina were also damaged by the “apparent tornadic activity” on Saturday, officials there said.
Cooke County Sheriff Ray Sappington says he expects the death toll, which currently stands at five, to rise as search and rescue efforts continue.
A Valley View home was pictured Sunday surrounded by debris after a tornado
Fox Dallas Fort Worth spoke with Kim Weston, a Celina resident, who returned home after the storm to find her home destroyed.
Weston’s mother, who also lives in the area, was trapped in her home at the time, but was later rescued, Fox reported.
“We heard that everyone on the street is okay and unfortunately our home is a total loss, but you know we’re thankful that we’re okay,” Weston said.
‘It was a godsend that we weren’t home. The neighbor across the street had a camper and it landed on our house. The only part still standing is where we would have been sheltered.’
A likely tornado also ripped through Rogers County, Oklahoma, near the city of Tulsa.
The city of Claremore, a large municipality in that province, had “extensive damage,” authorities said, adding that electricity would be out for “an extended period of time” for most residents.
WFAA has obtained dramatic images of two people driving straight through the tornado. They were identified as Valenia Gill and Brenda Procter Dance and were driving south along I-35 toward the town of Sanger, Texas, around 10:45 p.m. Saturday.
A house has been reduced to nothing but a pile of rubble in North Texas
‘We are in the middle of the tornado Brenda, what should I do? The car is shaking,” Valenia says, as the wind blows debris into their car.
The gusts grow stronger within seconds and the ladies stop the car, while Brenda repeats, “Cover your head, cover your head.”
Once the twister subsides, Valenia stops the car and says, “I don’t want to go anywhere yet. I’m shaking.’
As the several storms move into the Midwest, forecasters say there is a level 3 of 5 risk for severe thunderstorms over parts of the Mississippi and Ohio valleys through Monday morning. EF2 to EF5 tornadoes may also occur in that area.
However, severe weather continues in the center of the country, with a level 4 to 5 risk of thunderstorms through Sunday morning in parts of the central and southern plains.
The thunderstorms that forecasters expect in the Midwest on Sunday afternoon will increase and reach areas further south and east during the evening and overnight hours.
The width of the storm could extend as far north as the Great Lakes and as south as parts of Louisiana and the Florida panhandle.
This means major airport hubs in Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Nashville could be hit by heavy rain and lightning, leading to canceled and delayed flights over Memorial Day Weekend.
Record-breaking heat waves will also hit the southern U.S. over the holiday weekend.
Houston, New Orleans, Miami, Mobile, Alabama; Tampa, Florida, and Charleston, South Carolina, are cities where temperatures are more like July than late May, CNN reported.
Daily highs of more than 115 degrees are possible in some areas, the Storm Prediction Center said.