More than half a million homes and businesses were without power as of Saturday afternoon as storms and tornadoes swept across the southern and midwestern United States, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.
Ohio was one of the hardest hit states with about 200,000 people without power, according to PowerOutage.us.
At least 26 people have been killed as confirmed or suspected tornadoes in at least eight states destroyed homes and businesses, splintered trees and devastated neighborhoods across much of the country. The dead included at least nine in a Tennessee county, four in the small town of Wynne, Arkansas, three in Sullivan, Indiana and four in Illinois.
Other deaths from the storms that hit Friday into Saturday were reported in Alabama and Mississippi, along with one near Little Rock, Arkansas, where city officials said more than 2,600 buildings were in a tornado’s path.
Residents of Wynne, a community of about 8,000 people 50 miles west of Memphis, Tenn., woke up Saturday to find the high school’s roof ripped to shreds and windows shattered. Huge trees lay on the ground, their stumps reduced to studs. Broken walls, windows and roofs destroyed homes and businesses.
The debris was scattered in the shells of houses and on lawns: clothing, insulation, toys, splintered furniture, a pickup truck with shattered windows.
Some survivors said they came out of their homes to find buildings ripped apart, vehicles lying around like toys, broken glass and downed trees.
The National Weather Service said tornado was a high-end EF3 (Enhanced Fujita Scale) twister with winds of up to 165 mph (265 km/h) and a path as long as 25 miles (40 kilometers).
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard. On Saturday, Sanders asked President Joe Biden for a declaration of major disaster to support recovery efforts through federal resources.
It could take days to determine the exact number of tornadoes from the latest event, said Bill Bunting, chief of forecasting operations at the Storm Prediction Center. There were also hundreds of reports of large hail and damaging winds, he said.
A threat of tornadoes and hail lingered for the northeast, including in parts of Pennsylvania and New York.