HOUSTON • Deadly weekend storms have left at least 14 dead in the mid-western and southern United States, as eastern regions faced potential damaging winds and isolated tornadoes yesterday.
Severe weather devastated homes, overturned cars and felled trees, with the National Weather Service (NWS) confirming at least four tornadoes in Texas.
The mayor of Canton, Texas - a city some 95km east of Dallas - said the death toll there stood at four.
A spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management said severe weather had caused at least five fatalities in the state. A woman was killed when a tree fell on her mobile home in DeWitt, and a 10-year-old girl was killed after flood waters swept her away in Springdale, ABC News reported. The Cleburne County sheriff said a fire chief responding to the storm was killed on Sunday.
At least two other people reportedly died in storm-related incidents, while two children were missing after their mother's car was swept from a road by flood waters in Madison County. As many as 100,000 homes and businesses lost power, and Governor Asa Hutchinson declared a state of emergency on Sunday night.
Heavy rains also lashed the mid-western state of Missouri, with at least two reported casualties. According to CNN, one of those killed was a 72-year-old woman who was stranded in her car as it was swept away by flood waters.
In the St Louis area, as warnings were broadcast for severe thunderstorms, some people were told to evacuate and 33 rescues were conducted, mostly in the state's central and south-western regions, Missouri Governor Eric Greitens said.
In Tennessee, a two-year-old girl was pronounced dead at a hospital in Nashville after she was struck by a heavy metal football goalpost blown over by heavy winds, according to the city's police department.
As of late Sunday, the NWS was projecting major flooding to continue in parts of eastern Oklahoma, northern Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana.
The authorities warned that severe storms potentially packing heavy winds, hail and tornadoes could hit parts of the mid-Atlantic and north-eastern US by late yesterday.
GENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS