Death toll from US tornadoes, storms climbs

An Illinois official has confirmed three more deaths from storms, bringing the total death toll in the South and Midwest United States to at least 21.

Crawford County Board Chair Bill Burke said on Saturday three people were killed and eight others injured after a tornado hit the county about 9:10 pm [local time] on Friday.

Other deaths from the storms that hit Friday night into Saturday were reported in Alabama and Mississippi, along with one near Little Rock, Arkansas, where the mayor said more than 2,100 buildings were in a tornado's path.

Stunned residents of Wynne, a community of about 8,000 people 80 kilometres west of Memphis, Tennessee, woke on Saturday to find the high school's roof shredded and its windows blown out. Huge trees lay on the ground, their stumps reduced to nubs. Broken walls, windows and roofs pocked homes and businesses.

"I'm sad that my town has been hit so hard,” said Heidi Jenkins, a salon owner.

"Our school is gone, my church is gone. I'm sad for all the people who lost their homes."

Recovery was under way, with workers using chain saws to cut fallen trees and bulldozers moving material from shattered structures. Utility trucks worked to restore power, and volunteers set out to help.

At least seven people died in Tennessee's McNairy County, east of Memphis along the Mississippi border, said David Leckner, the mayor of Adamsville.

"The majority of the damage has been done to homes and residential areas," Leckner said, adding that although it appeared all people were accounted for, crews were going door to door to be sure.

In Belvidere, Illinois, some of the 260 people attending a heavy metal concert at the Apollo Theatre pulled a 50-year-old man from the rubble after part of the roof collapsed; he was dead when emergency workers arrived. Officials said 40 other people were injured, including two with life-threatening injuries.

Across and down the street from the Apollo stood a mural with an oversized black-and-white photograph of schoolchildren battling strong winds and rain after an especially violent tornado ravaged the rural town on April 21, 1967, killing 24.

READ MORE: Several dead as tornadoes tear through US Midwest, South

'Unrecognisable'

Friday's storms killed three people in Indiana's Sullivan County, near the Illinois line about 150 kilometres southwest of Indianapolis.

Sullivan Mayor Clint Lamb said at a news conference that an area south of the county seat of about 4,000 "is essentially unrecognisable right now" and that several people were rescued from rubble overnight. There were reports of as many as 12 people injured, he said, and search-and-rescue teams combed damaged areas.

"Quite frankly, I'm really, really shocked there isn’t more as far as human issues," he said, adding that recovery "is going to be a very long process."

In the Little Rock area, at least one person was killed and more than two dozen were hurt, some critically, authorities said. Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott said that 2,100 homes and businesses were in the tornado's path, but that no assessment had been done on how many were damaged.

The National Weather Service said the tornado was a high-end EF3 twister with wind speeds up to 265 kph and a path as long as 40 kilometres.

Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard to help local responders.

A suspected tornado killed a woman in northern Alabama's Madison County, said county official Mac McCutcheon.

And in northern Mississippi's Pontotoc County, officials confirmed one death and four injuries.

READ MORE: Powerful tornado kills more than two dozen in Mississippi, Alabama states

Storm feeding wildfires

The storms struck just hours after President Joe Biden visited the Mississippi community of Rolling Fork, where tornadoes last week destroyed parts of town.

Tornadoes also caused damage in eastern Iowa, and broke windows on cars and buildings northeast of Peoria, Illinois.

It could take days to determine the exact number of tornadoes, said Bill Bunting, chief of forecast operations at the Storm Prediction Center. There were also hundreds of reports of large hail and damaging winds, he said.

Hundreds of thousands lost power because of the sprawling storm system that also brought wildfires to the southern Plains and blizzard conditions to the Upper Midwest, and left in its wake high winds. A threat of tornadoes and hail remained for the Northeast, including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and New York.

More than 530,000 homes and businesses in the affected area lacked power at midday on Saturday, over 200,000 of them in Ohio, according to PowerOutage.us.

Blizzard conditions whipped parts of Minnesota, the Dakotas and Wisconsin, cutting power to tens of thousands in the Twin Cities area. Parts of Interstate 29 were closed.

Nearly 100 new wildfires were reported Friday in Oklahoma, according to the state forest service, and firefighters hoped to gain ground against them on Saturday. Fires were expected to remain a danger through the week.

READ MORE: Widespread damage as deadly tornado moves through Mississippi