Among the victims was also a 4-month-old baby. Governor Kevin Stitt declared a state of emergency in 12 counties following the damage reported. Around 30,000 people are without electricity
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Dozens of tornadoes hit parts of Oklahoma and neighboring Great Plains states, causing at least five deaths. Local authorities and media reported this on Sunday. According to the National Weather Service (NWS), after 78 tornadoes were recorded on Friday, mostly in Nebraska and Iowa, a separate weather system on Saturday generated 35 reports from North Texas and Oklahoma to Missouri. The storms dumped up to 18 centimeters of rain in some areas over the course of a few hours, and forecasters warned of a lingering risk of extreme weather Sunday, including flash flooding, hail and more tornadoes.
Sulphur, the town most affected
Sulphur, in south-central Oklahoma, was particularly hard hit Saturday evening, with videos and images posted on social media showing dozens of buildings torn to pieces. A postal truck sat precariously on top of the rubble of a building and trees, footage showed, with cinder blocks and wooden beams strewn everywhere. Rescue teams went from house to house and vehicle to vehicle searching for victims or survivors. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, speaking from the hard-hit town, said four people had died. The damage in Sulphur, where a woman died when the tornado hit at night, was the worst he has seen in his six years in office, he said at a news conference. “It seems like every business downtown is destroyed now,” he said, adding, “Thank God … there weren’t many people here at 10:30 at night.”
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A four-month-old baby also died
At least two people have died in the city of Holdenville, Oklahoma, the
State Department of Emergency Management (OEM), with local media reporting that a four-month-old baby was also among the victims. The OEM said a fourth person died on the highway in Marietta, where the videos
broadcast by local media showed several battered cars along the side of the road, with two semi-trailers overturned and a nearby warehouse torn apart. The National Weather Service said a preliminary investigation confirmed that the tornadoes in Sulfur and Marietta were at least EF-3 on the five-level enhanced Fujita scale, or gusts above 136 miles (218 kilometers) per hour.
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One month state of emergency declared
Stitt declared a 30-day state of emergency to speed up aid to 12 of the hardest-hit counties and said he was in contact with federal authorities for assistance. An Iowa man injured by a tornado on Friday later died in hospital, his family told local news outlet Ketv NewsWatch 7. More than 25,000 homes in Texas and more than 19,000 in Oklahoma were without power Sunday afternoon, he reported the Poweroutage.us website. The region is known for frequency and power of the tornadoes that rumble every spring.
