Two people died due to powerful tornado in America, including a four-month-old child
The area is known for the frequency and power of tornadoes (file)
Oklahoma, US:
An extraordinary number of powerful tornadoes have devastated parts of Oklahoma and surrounding Great Plains states, officials said Sunday, while a small town was reportedly hit by two separate tornadoes within a matter of hours .
The National Weather Service said 78 tornadoes were reported Friday, mostly in Nebraska and Iowa, with a separate weather system Saturday reporting 35 tornadoes from North Texas to Missouri.
At least two people, including a four-month-old baby, died in the Oklahoma city of Holdenville, according to multiple reports in state and local media, although crews were still sifting through mounds of debris Sunday.
The storm dropped up to seven inches (18 centimeters) of rain in some places within a matter of hours, and meteorologists warned of the threat of extreme weather including flash flooding, hail and more tornadoes on Sunday.
Videos and images posted on social media showed several buildings collapsed, vehicles damaged or overturned and trees stripped of branches and leaves in the small town of Sulphur, in south-central Oklahoma.
A video showed postal trucks in sulfur resting precariously atop the almost unrecognizable debris of buildings. Rescue teams went from house to house and vehicle to vehicle searching for victims or survivors.
“DO NOT COME NEAR SULFUR UNLESS YOU ARE A FIRST RESPONDER!!!” the Murray County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post.
The tornado that struck Ardmore, Oklahoma, threw debris as high as 20,000 feet (6,100 m), the Washington Post reported. Then two other tornadoes touched down near the city over the next two hours.
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt declared a 30-day state of emergency to expedite aid to the 12 hardest-hit counties.
More than 50,000 homes in Texas and 30,000 in Oklahoma were without power as of Sunday morning, the PowerOutage.US website reported.
The area is known for the frequency and power of tornadoes that occur each spring. But meteorologists say it is extremely rare for separate major outbreaks to occur in the coming days.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)