Tornadoes ripped through the south-central United States on Sunday, killing at least 17 people in Arkansas and Oklahoma and wiping out entire neighbourhoods of homes, according to officials, as rescue workers searched in darkness for survivors.
Winds ripped houses off their foundations and flipped cars on top of the rubble in the small town of Vilonia in central Arkansas’ Faulkner county, one of the worst-hit communities, television pictures showed.
Arkansas authorities said at least 10 people had died in Faulkner and six more across the state - the first reported fatalities of this year’s tornado season. Another person was killed in neighboring Oklahoma, said the sheriff’s department.
Searchers were continuing to dig through rubble in Vilonia and a spokesman for the County Sheriff’s office said there was a “mass casualty situation”.
“Tonight, I walked around what was only hours earlier a thriving neighbourhood that is now gone. An entire neighbourhood of 50 or so homes has been destroyed - many homes are completely gone except the foundation,” said US Representative Tim Griffin.
“And there is more devastation like this in other parts of Arkansas,” Mr Griffin added.
One person died when a tornado tore through Mayflower, 35 km northwest of Little Rock, at about 7:30 pm, officials said.
In Mayflower, some of about 45 homes were destroyed in a newer subdivision and a lumberyard was damaged, said Will Elder, an alderman in the city of 2,300 people.
The tornado passed through the east side of town, tearing up trees and bringing down powerlines, making it difficult for the emergency services to find stricken areas in the darkness, and forcing authorities to shut down Interstate 40.
“It’s extremely hazardous here right now,” said Mr Elder. “The power lines are down, roads are blocked and they will have to proceed with caution.”
The Arkansas National Guard was deployed to help out in the state.
The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management said on its website 10 deaths had been reported in Faulkner, five in Pulaski county and one in White county.
At least one other person was killed in a tornado in the small town of Quapaw, in the northeast corner of neighboring Oklahoma, according to Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Derek Derwin.
The twister was spotted in the town 200 miles northeast of Oklahoma City at about 5.45pm, according to the weather service.
Reuters