Severe storms sweeping across southern portions of the US and up into the Midwest were on Saturday blamed in the deaths of at least 11 people, including two first responders, as high winds, tornadoes and unrelenting rain battered large swaths of the country.
Storm-related fatalities were reported in Texas due to icy weather, in Alabama from a deadly tornado and in Louisiana, where winds were so strong that a trailer home was lifted off its foundation.
A man drowned in Oklahoma and the storms even touched the Midwest, with at least one death on an icy highway in Iowa.
Photo: AP
Hundreds of thousands of people were left without power from Texas to Ohio, parts of highways were closed in Oklahoma and Arkansas due to flooding, and hundreds of flights were canceled at Chicago’s international airports.
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson declared a state of emergency to assist crews working to restore power around the state.
Two first responders were killed and another was critically injured in Lubbock, Texas, on Saturday morning after they were hit by a vehicle while working the scene of a traffic accident in icy conditions, officials said.
Police Officer Nicholas Reyna, 27, who had been with the department for one year, died at the scene. Firefighter Lieutenant David Hill, 39, was taken to a local hospital, where he later died. Firefighter Matthew Dawson, 30, was hospitalized in critical condition.
Another person had died in Texas on Friday night, when a car flipped into a creek in Dallas as severe thunderstorms passed through.
Lightning from Friday’s stormy weather was suspected of causing fires that burned two houses, but caused no injuries in the North Texas cities of Burleson and Mansfield.
A man drowned near Kiowa, Oklahoma, after he was swept away in floodwaters, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said on Saturday.
The Iowa State Patrol said roads were caked with ice early on Saturday, when a semitrailer on Interstate 80 overturned, killing a passenger in the truck east of Iowa City.
In Alabama, three people were confirmed killed near Carrollton in Pickens County, the US National Weather Service in Birmingham said on Twitter.
Earlier on Saturday, in northwestern Louisiana, firefighters found the bodies of Jerry Franks, 79, and Mary Sue Franks, 65, near their demolished trailer in Benton, the Bossier Parish Sheriff’s Office said on Facebook.
The winds were so strong the home of the couple was moved 61m from its foundation.
Also in Louisiana, Raymond Holden, 75, was killed in his bed when a tree fell on his home in Oil City, crushing him, the Caddo Parish Coroner’s Office said.
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