At least 21 people have died in the south and east-central United States as tornadoes and severe storms ripped homes and businesses to pieces, according to a new count from authorities.
Tennessee has seven deaths due to severe weather, all of which occurred in McNairy County, east of Memphis, Maggie Hannan, spokeswoman for the state’s disaster management agency, told AFP. .
Devastating tornadoes also swept through Arkansas, killing five people, said Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the governor of this rural state in the American South, during a press conference.
Little Rock, the capital, was hit hard. Residents woke up to overturned cars, huge uprooted trees, broken telephone poles and gutted houses.
“We know that many people have had to be displaced and are looking for refuge“, detailed the mayor of Little Rock, Frank Scott Jr.
“The roof of some buildings was completely blown off”, Lara Farrar, a journalist for a local economic publication, told AFP on Friday. “The neighborhood was simply completely razed and destroyed.”
The town of Wynne, in the northeast of the state, was “basically bisected by the damage from east to west“, explained the mayor Jennifer Hobbs with CNN.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who said she had discussed the situation with President Joe Biden, had declared a state of emergency the day before and deployed around 100 National Guardsmen.
Mississippi authorities have reported one death and several injuries in Pontotoc County, about 200 km south of Memphis.
An elderly person was also killed in Alabama when a tornado hit his house, detailed the authorities of the city of Huntsville, near the border with Tennessee.
