At least 22 people have died as a result of devastating storms and violent tornadoes that destroyed entire communities in US South and Midwest on Friday and Saturday, and state governors in the region have declared a state of emergency to repair the damage, as reported by CNN.
Among the victims are four people who died as a result of the collapse of structures in Illinois. Three deaths followed the collapse of a residential building in Crawford County, said the Illinois Emergency
Management Agency spokesman Kevin Sur, and a fourth person died after a roof collapsed at the Apollo Theater in Belvidere.
Over 50 preliminary tornado reports were recorded on Friday in at least seven states, including Arkansas, where the storms killed five people - four in the small town of Wynn and another in North Little Rock, according to local officials.
Three people died in Indiana when a storm on Friday night damaged homes and a fire department near Sullivan, about 95 miles southwest of Indianapolis, said the State Police Sergeant Matt Ames.
McNairy County, Tennessee's Office of Emergency Management confirmed that seven people had died in the county.
At least 50 people were hospitalized in Pulaski County in Arkansas, where a tornado tore through the Little Rock area on Friday, said the county spokeswoman Madeline Roberts. Five more were hospitalized after the tornado hit Covington, Tennessee, on Friday, according to the spokesman for Baptist Memorial Health Care. The roads have become impassable.
The same storm system killed one person Saturday night after a building collapsed in Sussex County, Delaware, according to the Sussex County Emergency Operations Center.
An overtime tornado destroyed much of the city of Rolling Fork, Mississippi, where winds were estimated to reach 170 mph.
At least a dozen tornadoes have been reported in Arkansas.
Over 34,000 people in the state were still without power Saturday afternoon, as reported by poweroutage.us.
