Tornadoes ripped through parts of the United States on Saturday, killing at least 17 people and destroying scores of homes.
According to authorities, the most fatalities as of Saturday morning occurred in Missouri, which was hit by twisters overnight, killing at least 11 people. The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported that several people were injured.
A man died after a tornado ripped apart his home.
“It wasn’t recognizable as a home. “Just a debris field,” Butler County Coroner Jim Akers said, describing the scene that rescuers found when they arrived. “The floor was upside down. We were walking along walls.”
According to Akers, rescuers were able to save a woman inside the home.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported that eight people were killed Saturday after a dust storm caused at least 50 vehicles to collide on an interstate in Sherman County.
Arkansas officials reported three deaths in Independence County and 29 injuries across eight counties from overnight storms.
“We have teams out surveying the damage from last night’s tornadoes, and first responders are on the ground to assist,” Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on X.
She and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp both declared states of emergency in their respective states. Kemp said he issued the declaration in anticipation of severe weather approaching the state later Saturday.
Meanwhile, authorities in Amarillo, Texas, reported three deaths in car accidents during a dust storm on Friday.
The deaths occurred as a massive storm system moved across the country, unleashing winds that caused deadly dust storms and sparked more than 100 wildfires.
Extreme weather conditions, including hurricane-force winds, are expected to affect a region home to over 100 million people. Winds gusting up to 80 mph were expected from the Canadian border to Texas, threatening blizzard conditions in colder northern areas and wildfires in warmer, drier areas to the south.
More than 130 fires were reported across Oklahoma, prompting evacuation orders in some communities.
Oklahoma has seen nearly 300 homes damaged or destroyed by fire. At a Saturday news conference, Gov. Kevin Stitt reported that 266 square miles of his state had burned so far.
According to the State Patrol, the winds were so strong that several tractor-trailers toppled.
“This is terrible out here,” said Charles Daniel, a trucker driving a 48-foot trailer down Interstate 40 in western Oklahoma. “There is a lot of sand and dirt in the air.” I’m not going over 55 mph. “I’m afraid it’ll blow over if I do.”
According to experts, such weather extremes are common in March.
Tornadoes hit amid storm outbreak
The Storm Prediction Center said fast-moving storms could produce tornadoes and hail as large as baseballs on Saturday, but the greatest threat would be straight-line winds near or exceeding hurricane force, with gusts of up to 100 mph possible.
Significant tornadoes are expected Saturday afternoon and evening, with some potentially long-tracked and violent. The highest-risk region stretches from eastern Louisiana and Mississippi in the afternoon to Alabama, western portions of Georgia, and the Florida panhandle in the evening, according to the Center.
Wildfires break out amid dry, gusty conditions
Aside from Oklahoma, wildfires in Texas, Kansas, Missouri, and New Mexico posed a threat of spreading quickly due to warm, dry conditions and strong winds.
A blaze in Roberts County, Texas, northeast of Amarillo, spread quickly from less than a square mile to nearly 33 square miles, according to the Texas A&M University Forest Service. Crews halted their advance by Friday evening.
Another fire, about 60 miles to the south, spread to about 3.9 square miles before being halted in the afternoon.
According to poweroutage.us, more than 260,000 homes and businesses in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana lost power as a result of high winds.
Blizzard warnings in Northern Plains
The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for parts of far western Minnesota and far eastern South Dakota early Saturday. Snow accumulations of 3 to 6 inches were forecast, with up to a foot possible.
Wind gusts up to 60 mph were expected to cause whiteout conditions.
