HOUSTON: At least 14 people were killed across central part of the United States as extreme storms and tornadoes hit several states including Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas, said officials on Sunday.
Rescue efforts were ongoing and hundreds of thousands of residents were without electricity after the storms struck the Southern Plains region starting late Saturday.
In Texas, Cooke County Sheriff Ray Sappington told a news briefing that seven people were killed after a tornado ripped through the Valley View area, north of Dallas. Search and rescue operations were going on.
The twister destroyed a gas station, homes, and overturned vehicles on a major highway. Sappington termed the damage “pretty extensive,” in an interview with The Weather Channel.
At least two people were killed in Oklahoma after a tornado hit Mayes County late Saturday, the county head of emergency management Johnny Janzen told media in Tulsa.
While in Arkansas, five people were killed in storms in the early hours of Sunday, confirmed authorities to local media. Power lines and trees were downed, and some areas faced flash flooding.
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In Indiana, the start of the Indianapolis 500 was delayed for many hours Sunday because of storms in the area, with fans asked to leave the bleachers and take shelter.
A crowd of 125,000 was expected for the race, one of the most important car races in America.
According to the website Poweroutage.us. as the storm system moved across the US, nearly 490,000 citizens were without power in states stretching from Texas up to Kansas and east to Ohio and Kentucky,
Tornado alerts are still active in several areas of the central US.
