Emergency teams in the US state of Arkansas searched through rubble on Saturday for more victims after tornadoes tore through the state, killing at least four and injuring dozens.
Officials said that the hurricanes caused roofs and walls to collapse in many buildings, overturned cars, and fell trees and power lines in the city of Little Rock and large areas east and northeast of the state capital.
A wave of severe spring weather swept across many parts of the United States on Friday, threatening the central region of the country from Texas to the Great Lakes with thunderstorms and tornadoes.
Cross County Coroner Eli Long said reports had been received from Wayne, 100 miles east of Little Rock, of four deaths in Arkansas.
One person died and more than 50 were taken to hospitals in North Little Rock, Pulaski County spokeswoman Madeline Roberts told The Washington Post.
Frank Scott Jr., mayor of Little Rock, said that more than 30 people were taken to hospital, and no deaths had been recorded as of Friday evening, adding that the toll was still inaccurate.
The White House said, in a statement, that US President Joe Biden spoke with Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the governors of Little Rock and Wayne. Biden also spoke with Diane Creswell, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
And in Belvedere, in northern Illinois, one person was killed and 28 injured when severe weather caused the roof of a theater to collapse during a concert.
Matt Eames, a police sergeant in Indiana, said three people died in Sullivan County. Police official Jason Bobbitt said on Facebook that an emergency had been declared in the affected areas.
And Fox News reported that a tornado killed one person in Madison County, Alabama, and another died during a storm in Pontotoc County, Mississippi.
This turbulent weather comes a week after a series of thunderstorms caused a deadly tornado that swept through Rolling Fork, Mississippi, destroying many of the town’s 400 homes and killing 26 people.
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