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At least 21 dead after tornadoes rake US Midwest, South

April 2, 2023

By ADRIAN SAINZ and ANDREW DeMILLO

WYNNE, Ark. — Storms that dropped possibly dozens of tornadoes killed at least 21 people in small towns and big cities across the South and Midwest, tearing a path through the Arkansas capital, collapsing the roof of a packed concert venue in Illinois, and stunning people throughout the region Saturday with the damage’s scope.

Confirmed or suspected tornadoes in at least eight states destroyed homes and businesses, splintered trees, and laid waste to neighborhoods across a broad swath of the country. The dead included seven in one Tennessee county, four in the small town of Wynne, Arkansas, three in Sullivan, Indiana, and four in Illinois.

Other deaths from the storms that hit Friday night into Saturday were reported in Alabama and Mississippi, along with one near Little Rock, Arkansas, where city officials said more than 2,600 buildings were in a tornado’s path.

Stunned residents of Wynne, a community of about 8,000 people 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Memphis, Tennessee, woke Saturday to find the high school’s roof shredded and its windows blown out. Huge trees lay on the ground, their stumps reduced to nubs. Broken walls, windows and roofs pocked homes and businesses.

Debris and memories of regular life lay scattered inside the damaged shells of homes and strewn on lawns: clothing, insulation, roofing paper, toys, splintered furniture, a pickup truck with its windows shattered.

Authorities work the scene at the Apollo Theatre after a severe spring storm caused damage and injuries during a concert, late Friday, March 31, 2023, in Belvidere, Ill. (AP Photo/Matt Marton)

Damage from a late-night tornado is seen in Sullivan, Ind., Saturday, April 1, 2023. Multiple deaths were reported in the area following the storm. (AP Photo/Doug McSchooler)

Jaycee Ahlefeld surveys the damage left after a late-night tornado devastated the area in Sullivan, Ind., Saturday, April 1, 2023. Ahlefeld’s son attended a day care that had been on what is now an empty lot. Multiple deaths were reported in the area following the storm. (AP Photo/Doug McSchooler)

Damage from a late-night tornado is seen in Sullivan, Ind., Saturday, April 1, 2023. Multiple deaths were reported in the area following the storm. (AP Photo/Doug McSchooler)

Crew members work to clean up debris at the scene where the roof of the Apollo Theatre collapsed during a tornado Saturday, April 1, 2023, in Belvidere, Ill. Belvidere Fire Chief Shawn Schadle said 260 people were in the venue. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

Authorities work the scene at the Apollo Theatre after a severe spring storm caused damage and injuries during a concert, late Friday, March 31, 2023, in Belvidere, Ill. (AP Photo/Matt Marton)

A worker inspects the collapsed marquee at the scene where the roof of the Apollo Theatre collapsed during a tornado, Saturday, April 1, 2023, in Belvidere, Ill. Belvidere Fire Chief Shawn Schadle said 260 people were in the venue. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

Businesses and vehicles are damaged from a storm in Little Rock, Ark., on Saturday, April 1, 2023. Unrelenting tornadoes that tore through parts of the South and Midwest that shredded homes and shopping centers. (AP Photo/Sha’Cori Washington)

Homes are damaged in a neighborhood from a storm in Little Rock, Ark., on Saturday, April 1, 2023. Unrelenting tornadoes that tore through parts of the South and Midwest that shredded homes and shopping centers. (AP Photo/Sha’Cori Washington)

Heidi Jenkins, owner of Boulevard Salon, speaks with a reporter in front of her destroyed business in Wynne, Ark., on Saturday, April 1, 2023. Unrelenting tornadoes that tore through parts of the South and Midwest that shredded homes and shopping centers. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)

A fallen tree damages a house after a storm in Little Rock, Ark., on Saturday, April 1, 2023. Unrelenting tornadoes that tore through parts of the South and Midwest that shredded homes and shopping centers. (AP Photo/Andrew DeMillo)

Wynne High school is damaged from Friday’s severe weather in Wynne, Ark., on Saturday, April 1, 2023. Unrelenting tornadoes that tore through parts of the South and Midwest that shredded homes and shopping centers. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)

Workers cut fallen trees along a road leading to Wynne, Ark., on Saturday, April 1, 2023. Unrelenting tornadoes that tore through parts of the South and Midwest that shredded homes and shopping centers. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)

Damage from a late-night tornado is seen in Sullivan, Ind., Saturday, April 1, 2023. Multiple deaths were reported in the area following the storm. (AP Photo/Doug McSchooler)

Misty Grimes, searches through debris scattered throughout her yard left from a late-night tornado in Sullivan, Ind., Saturday, April 1, 2023. Grimes and her husband, Matt, were home as the storm hit, and found shelter inside their home. Neither were injured. Multiple deaths were reported in the area following the storm. (AP Photo/Doug McSchooler)

Damage from a late-night tornado is seen in Sullivan, Ind., Saturday, April 1, 2023. Multiple deaths were reported in the area following the storm. (AP Photo/Doug McSchooler)

Debris covers the ground around damaged homes in Wynne, Ark., on Saturday, April 1, 2023. Unrelenting tornadoes that tore through parts of the South and Midwest that shredded homes and shopping centers. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)

This photo provided by the Adamsville, Tenn., Police Department shows debris in the Adamsville, Tenn., area on Friday, March 31, 2023, after a deadly tornado passed through. (Adamsville Police Department via AP)

Jeremiah Burrell, 14, walks past the destroyed gym at Crestview Elementary School in Covington, Tenn., on Saturday, April 1, 2023. A severe storm or possible tornado hit the area on Friday night. (Chris Day/The Commercial Appeal via AP)

Anne Adams, the principal of Crestview Elementary, Pearlie Mason, a secretary at the school, and Carolyn Hayes, a teacher at the school, look at the damage to the school and surrounding area in Covington, Tenn., on Saturday, April 1, 2023. Hayes normally works after school with students and would have still been inside in an area of the building that was heavily damaged had the school not closed early, she said. (Chris Day/The Commercial Appeal via AP)

Savannah Bernard and Shakiya Wilson, 16, walk through the rubble next to the destroyed gym at Crestview Elementary School in Covington, Tenn., on Saturday, April 1, 2023. A severe storm or possible tornado hit the area on Friday night. (Chris Day/The Commercial Appeal via AP)

Volunteers comb through an area that was heavily damage by a tornado in Sullivan, Ind., Saturday, April 1, 2023, as search-and-rescue efforts continue. Storms that spawned possibly dozens of tornadoes have killed several people in the South and Midwest. (AP Photo/Doug McSchooler)

A school bus is surrounded by debris in an area that was heavily damage by a tornado in Sullivan, Ind., Saturday, April 1, 2023. Storms that spawned possibly dozens of tornadoes have killed several people in the South and Midwest. (AP Photo/Doug McSchooler)

J.W. Spencer speaks with a reporter outside his home about his experience during the tornado in Wynne, Ark., on Saturday, April 1, 2023. Unrelenting tornadoes that tore through parts of the South and Midwest that shredded homes and shopping centers. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)

Ashley Macmillan speaks with a reporter in front of a massive tree that fell in front of her mother’s house in Wynne, Ark., on Saturday, April 1, 2023. Unrelenting tornadoes that tore through parts of the South and Midwest that shredded homes and shopping centers. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)

Two people stand in front of a destroyed business in Wynne, Ark., on Saturday, April 1, 2023. Unrelenting tornadoes that tore through parts of the South and Midwest that shredded homes and shopping centers. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)

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Ashley Macmillan said she, her husband and their children huddled with their dogs in a small bathroom as a tornado passed, “praying and saying goodbye to each other, because we thought we were dead.” A falling tree seriously damaged their home, but no one in the family was hurt.

“We could feel the house shaking, we could hear loud noises, dishes rattling. And then it just got calm,” she said.

Recovery was already underway, with workers using chain saws to cut fallen trees and bulldozers moving material from shattered structures. Utility trucks worked to restore power.

At least seven people died in Tennessee’s McNairy County, east of Memphis along the Mississippi border, said David Leckner, the mayor of Adamsville.

“The majority of the damage has been done to homes and residential areas,” Leckner said, adding that although it appeared all people were accounted for, crews were going door to door to be sure.

In Belvidere, Illinois, some of the 260 people attending a heavy metal concert at the Apollo Theatre pulled a 50-year-old man from the rubble after part of the roof collapsed; he was dead when emergency workers arrived. Officials said 40 other people were injured, including two with life-threatening injuries.

“They dragged someone out from the rubble, and I sat with him and I held his hand and I was (telling him), ‘It’s going to be OK.’ I didn’t really know much else what to do,” concertgoer Gabrielle Lewellyn told WTVO-TV.

The venue’s Facebook page said the bands scheduled to perform were Morbid Angel, Crypta, Skeletal Remains and Revocation.

Crews worked Saturday to clean up around the Apollo, with forklifts pulling away loosely hanging bricks. Business owners picked up shards of glass and covered shattered windows.

Across and down the street from the Apollo stood a mural with an oversized black-and-white photograph of schoolchildren battling strong winds and rain after an especially violent tornado ravaged the rural town on April 21, 1967, killing 24.

In Crawford County, Illinois, three people were killed and eight others injured after a tornado hit around New Hebron, Bill Burke, the county board chair, said.

Sheriff Bill Rutan said 60 to 100 families were displaced.

“We’ve had emergency crews digging people out of their basements because the house is collapsed on top of them, but luckily they had that safe space to go to,” Rutan said at a news conference.

Illinois state Rep. Adam Niemerg called the tornado “catastrophic.”

That tornado was not far from where three people were killed in Indiana’s Sullivan County, about 95 miles (150 kilometers) southwest of Indianapolis.

Sullivan Mayor Clint Lamb said at a news conference that an area south of the county seat of about 4,000 “is essentially unrecognizable right now” and that several people were rescued from rubble overnight. There were reports of as many as 12 people injured, he said, and search-and-rescue teams combed damaged areas.

“Quite frankly, I’m really, really shocked there isn’t more as far as human issues,” he said, adding that recovery “is going to be a very long process.”

In the Little Rock area, at least one person was killed and more than 50 were hurt, some critically, authorities said.

The National Weather Service said the tornado was a high-end EF3 twister with wind speeds up to 165 mph (265 kph) and a path as long as 25 miles (40 kilometers).

Masoud Shahed-Ghaznavi was having lunch at home when the tornado roared through his neighborhood, causing him to hide in his laundry room as sheetrock fell on his head and windows shattered. When he emerged, the house was mostly rubble.

“I see everything around me is sky,” Shahed-Ghaznavi recalled. He barely slept Friday night.

“When I closed my eyes, I couldn’t sleep, imagined I was here,” he said Saturday outside his home.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard to help local responders.

A suspected tornado killed a woman in northern Alabama’s Madison County, said county official Mac McCutcheon. And in northern Mississippi’s Pontotoc County, officials confirmed one death and four injuries.

The storms struck just hours after President Joe Biden visited the Mississippi community of Rolling Fork, where tornadoes last week destroyed parts of town.

Tornadoes also caused damage in eastern Iowa, and broke windows on cars and buildings northeast of Peoria, Illinois.

It could take days to determine the exact number of tornadoes, said Bill Bunting, chief of forecast operations at the Storm Prediction Center. There were also hundreds of reports of large hail and damaging winds, he said.

“That’s a quite active day,” he said. “But that’s not unprecedented.”

Hundreds of thousands lost power because of the sprawling storm system that also brought wildfires to the southern Plains and blizzard conditions to the Upper Midwest. A threat of tornadoes and hail remained for the Northeast, including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and New York.

More than 530,000 homes and businesses in the affected area lacked power at midday Saturday, over 200,000 of them in Ohio, according to PowerOutage.us.

Blizzard conditions whipped parts of Minnesota, the Dakotas and Wisconsin, cutting power to tens of thousands in the Twin Cities area. Parts of Interstate 29 were closed.

Nearly 100 new wildfires were reported Friday in Oklahoma, according to the state forest service. Fires were expected to remain a danger through the next week.

DeMillo reported from Little Rock. Associated Press writers around the country contributed to this report, including Harm Venhuizen in Belvidere, Illinois, and Corey Williams in Detroit.

Orange County Register

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At least 21 dead after tornadoes rake US Midwest, South

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