At least 26 people have died after tornadoes ripped through several US states.

Storms and dozens of tornadoes have killed at least 26 people in small villages and major cities across the South and Midwest of the United States. The storms ripped a path through Arkansas's capital, ripped the roof off a crowded concert venue in Illinois, and caused widespread devastation across the area. Tornadoes confirmed or suspected in at least eight states destroyed homes and businesses, uprooted trees, and wreaked havoc on neighborhoods across the nation. At least nine persons were killed in one Tennessee county, four in the small Arkansas town of Wynne, three in the Indiana town of Sullivan, and four in Illinois. Other fatalities were recorded in Alabama and Mississippi, as well as one near Little Rock, Arkansas, where city officials said more than 2,600 buildings were in the path of one tornado. The roof of Wynne High School, a town of about 8,000 people 50 miles west of Memphis, Tennessee, was ripped off overnight and its windows blown out, while huge trees lay on the ground and dozens of houses were destroyed. Clothing, insulation, toys, splintered furniture, and a pick-up truck with shattered windows lie strewn inside the shells of homes and on lawns. Ashley Macmillan said she, her husband, and their children huddled in a small bathroom with their dogs as a tornado passed through, "praying and saying goodbye to each other, because we thought we were dead." 

Their house was severely damaged by a falling tree, but they were unharmed. "We could feel the house trembling, hear loud noises, and dishes rattling." "And then it just calmed down," she explained. Workers are already clearing the area with chainsaws and bulldozers, and utility crews are restoring electricity. Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders proclaimed a state of emergency and activated the US National Guard to assist local responders. According to county official Mac McCutcheon, a suspected tornado killed a lady in northern Alabama's Madison County. In Pontotoc County, northern Mississippi, officials verified one death and four injuries. The storms hit just hours after US Vice President Joe Biden toured the Mississippi town of Rolling Fork, which was devastated by tornadoes last week. According to Bill Bunting, director of forecast operations at the Storm Prediction Centre, determining the precise number of tornadoes could take days. He also reported hundreds of accounts of large hail and damaging gusts. 

By Covenant