Severe thunderstorms swept through the U.S. Southern Plains and Ozarks over the Memorial Day weekend.
As per Reuters, the storms resulted in at least 21 deaths across four states and damaged hundreds of buildings.
The death toll includes eight fatalities in Arkansas, seven in Texas, four in Kentucky, and two in Oklahoma, according to state emergency authorities.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said in a post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), noting, “It was a tough night for our people.”
In north Texas, near the Oklahoma border, a powerful tornado struck on Saturday night, killing seven people, including two children aged 2 and 5 from the same family, and injuring nearly 100 others.
Late Sunday, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed at least eight deaths in her state due to the storms.
Meanwhile, one Arkansas resident with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease died when the power went out, cutting off their oxygen supply.
Power outages affected hundreds of thousands of Americans on Monday, with Kentucky alone experiencing over 180,000 outages, according to PowerOutage.
While, US. Governor Beshear noted that restoring power in some areas could take days.
Moreover, the National Weather Service warned of additional storms moving through the Ohio and Tennessee valleys, bringing damaging winds, large hail, more tornadoes, and heavy downpours capable of causing flash floods.
This latest bout of extreme weather follows a powerful tornado that ripped through an Iowa town days earlier, killing four people, and more twisters that hit Texas last week.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is preparing for the potentially "extraordinary" 2024 Atlantic hurricane season predicted to start on June 1.
