Portions of Pennsylvania, New York, and mid-Atlantic and south-east states were still under a National Weather Service watch for damaging wind and tornadoes, as the death toll from weekend storms rose to 36 people across six states.
In a White House statement, Donald Trump said he was monitoring the tornadoes and storms, adding that “36 innocent lives have been lost, and many more devastated”.
Trump announced that the national guard had been deployed to Arkansas and pledged help to state and local officials.
The storms that hit the south and the midwest headed east on Sunday. More than 340,000 consumers had no power in the affected areas as of late afternoon on Sunday, according to the website PowerOutage.
Missouri reported the largest number of deaths, 12 fatalities spanning five counties, the state’s highway patrol posted on social media. Missouri’s governor, Mike Kehoe, said there was still one person missing in the state, which saw widespread destruction across 27 counties.
Robbie Myers, director of emergency management in Missouri’s Butler county, told reporters that more than 500 homes, a church and a grocery store in the county were destroyed. A mobile home park had been “totally destroyed”, he said.
“Everything around it here is really bad,” Missouri resident Rick Brittingham told Reuters from Butler county. “The trailer park up the street had fatalities. So, I mean, we don’t have nothing compared to anything like that. I still have a home. They don’t.”
Mississippi’s governor, Tate Reeves, posted on social media that six deaths had been reported in the state – one in Covington county, two in Jefferson Davis county and three in Walthall county.
According to preliminary assessments, 29 people were injured statewide and 21 counties sustained storm damage, Reeves said.
Hailey Hart and her fiance, Steve Romero, hunkered down with their three huskies inside their 1994 Toyota Celica as a tornado ripped apart their home on Saturday in Tylertown, Mississippi.
Romero said he prayed out loud and hugged Hart as the car rolled on to its side, windows shattering, before it landed on its wheels again. After the twister passed, they could hear people nearby screaming for help.
“It was a bad dream come true,” Romero said.
Next door, Hart’s grandparents crawled out from the rubble of their destroyed house after they sought shelter in a bathroom as falling trees collapsed the roof.
“Everything was coming down on us,” said Donna Blansett, Hart’s grandmother. “All I could do was pray to God to save us.”
They escaped with just a few scratches and aches. Family members, friends and volunteers spent Sunday removing debris and salvaging anything they could find – some damp clothes, a photo album and a few toiletries.
“I’m so happy you’re alive,” Hart said through tears, as she embraced her grandmother on Sunday.
The National Weather Service said tornado watches had mostly expired, but dangerous winds were still possible in the Carolinas, east Georgia and northern Florida through Sunday evening.
In Arkansas, three deaths occurred, the state’s department of emergency management said, adding that there were 32 injuries.
Eight deaths were confirmed in a crash involving more than 50 cars in Sherman county in Kansas caused by a severe dust storm, the Kansas highway patrol said in a statement. Many injured travelers were taken to local hospitals.
At least two people died in Alabama due to the severe weather, the state’s governor, Kay Ivey, said in a social media post. “We have reports of damage in 52 of our 67 counties,” she said.
Crashes caused by dust storms near Amarillo, Texas, resulted in three deaths, according to the state’s department of public safety.
Wind-driven wildfires caused extensive damage in Texas and Oklahoma, and officials warned on Sunday that parts of both states would again face an increased risk of fire danger in the coming week.
More than 130 fires were reported across Oklahoma and nearly 300 homes were damaged or destroyed, the state’s governor, Kevin Stitt, said.
“Nobody has enough resources to fight fires when the wind is blowing 70mph,” said Terry Essary, the fire chief of Stillwater, Oklahoma. “It’s an insurmountable task.”
Oklahoma department of emergency management spokesperson Keli Cain said on Sunday that two people were killed as a result of the wildfires and weather.
Thirty-nine tornadoes were reported from Friday to midday on Sunday, but the number was not yet confirmed, according to the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center.
