At least 32 people have been slain after a weekend of devastating tornadoes that ripped through the South and Midwest of the United States.
Massive cyclones wreaked havoc across multiple states, destroying homes and leaving thousands without electricity.
Since March 31, more than 80 tornadoes have been reported, according to the National Weather Service.
There have been fatalities in Arkansas, Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.
The greatest number of fatalities occurred in Tennessee, where 15 people perished after tornadoes swept through multiple counties, according to local officials.
Wynne, Arkansas, about 100 miles east of Little Rock, was hit by another storm.
Jennifer Hobbs, the mayor of Wynne, told CNN that the municipality had been “cut in half by east-to-west damage.”
As a tornado passed overhead, Ashley Macmillan, her husband, and their children huddled in the bathroom with their dogs, “praying and saying goodbye to each other, because we believed we were dead.”
Their residence was severely damaged by a falling tree, but they were unharmed.
Ms. Macmillan told the AP news agency, “We could feel the house trembling, hear loud sounds, and hear dishes rattling. And then it just got calm.”
Wynne High School was severely damaged, with some structures being torn to pieces. Lisa Worden, one of the school’s instructors, stated that the decision to send students home early was crucial.
“We got out at 1:30, which was such a Godsend from our superintendent because otherwise students would have been on buses and teachers would have been here,” she told the Reuters news agency.
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency on Friday, activating the national guard to aid recovery.
She stated that she had discussed the situation with President Joe Biden, who pledged federal assistance.
On Sunday, President Biden tweeted that his government will help several states recover from the cyclones.
“Jill and I are praying for everyone affected,” he added.
Friday’s violent storms in the state of Illinois led to the collapse of a theatre roof during a heavy metal concert in Belvidere, resulting in one fatality and 28 injuries.
Hundreds of thousands of individuals were without power over the weekend in multiple states.
According to the US PowerOutage website, Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania are the hardest hit states.
In a bulletin, the Storm Prediction Center warned that some of the forecasted tornadoes could cover extensive ground.
The fatal tornadoes strike a week after a rare, long-track twister in Mississippi killed 26 people.
Last week’s tornado in Mississippi traveled 59 miles (94km) and lasted approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes, an unusually long duration for a storm to persist. Approximately 2,000 residences were damaged, according to officials.
On Friday, Vice President Biden traveled to the state to express his condolences.
