A tornado hit Little Rock, the main city of the US state of Arkansas, turning roofs into shrapnel, toppling cars and forcing the population to take shelter quickly, injuring several dozen.
The Little Rock Fire Department reported extensive damage and debris in the west end of the city and announced on Facebook that firefighters were conducting rescue operations.
Video of Aaron Borders’ Little Rock tornado. #arwx pic.twitter.com/AoPvXHkH0I
-James Bryant (@KATVJames) March 31, 2023
Other tornadoes were recorded in the states of Tennessee, Iowa and Illinois.
More than 350,000 people are at risk from this “major and destructive tornado,” as the U.S. National Weather Service has dubbed it.
The University of Arkansas Medical Science Center in Little Rock is preparing for a huge number of injuries and expects at least 15 to 20 tornado patients. Several people had already been transported to the unit, but the number of victims has not yet been released.
The Baptist Health Medical Center has confirmed this CNN have already received 21 injured, five of whom are in critical condition.
However, it is not yet possible to draw an exact balance on the number of injuries as local emergency dispatchers are still responding to the damage caused by the inclement weather, the spokesperson for the Division of Emergency Management of Arkansas television broadcaster told ( ADEM), Rebekah Magnus.
LOCAL MEDIA in Arkansas reports more than 600 casualties from this tornado.
The storm is moving east from Little Rock.
WHEN YOU ARE ON THE PATH, SEARCH SHELTER NOW pic.twitter.com/gNKBUlASgw
– Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) March 31, 2023
Nearly 70,000 people in Arkansas were without power Friday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks power outages. In the neighboring state of Oklahoma, there were about 37,000.
Arkansas Governor Huckabee Sanders has already declared a state of emergency.
️ Tornado→Little Rock
aftermath
#Arkansas #UNITED STATES pic.twitter.com/9xtmJUfgFA– Mauricio Gómez Valenzuela (@Mau_Chihuahua) March 31, 2023
The massive storms are affecting at least 15 states in the Midwest and Southern United States, prompting meteorologists to urge people to prepare for dangerous weather. 21 people.
More than 85 million people have received weather warnings from the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center warning of an unusual outbreak of storms that could bring hail, gusty winds and strong tornadoes.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by KATV News (@katvnews)
Hail the size of a ping pong ball was observed in the states of Missouri, Arkansas and Iowa.
Major urban centers at high risk for storms as of Friday afternoon are Chicago; Saint Louis; Little Rock and Jonesboro, Arkansas; and Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
on update
Source: DN
