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The toll of tornadoes and violent storms that hit the United States increased on Saturday to 18 dead, with seven deaths in the state of Tennessee in the south of the country, according to local authorities.
“There have been seven severe weather-related deaths in McNairy County“Tennessee Disaster Management Agency spokeswoman Maggie Hannan told AFP. The toll was previously 11 deaths in the affected states since Friday.
show of desolation
The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued tornado warnings for parts of neighboring states like Tennessee, Illinois and Iowa. The tornado left in its wake a spectacle of desolation with overturned cars, huge uprooted trees, broken telephone poles and gutted houses.
Lara Farrar, a journalist for a local economics publication, told AFP by telephone that she had beentotally in shockupon discovering the damage near her home in Little Rock. “The roof of some buildings was completely blown off“, she testified, sharing images of destroyed houses, the walls partially torn down, trees on the ground.
Devastated Little Rock, Arkansas, March 31, 2023. BENJAMIN KRAIN / AFP
“The neighborhood was simply completely razed and destroyed“, she added, referring to significant destruction on a strip of about 500 meters wide but with “very little damage” outside.
“The neighborhood was simply completely razed and destroyedsaid one resident. BENJAMIN KRAIN / AFP
In full concert
In the north of the country, in the small town of Belvidere, west of Chicago in the State of Illinois, part of the roof and the facade of the Apollo Theater collapsed during the passage of a violent storm. A concert by a heavy metal band was underway, according to local media.
Shawn Schadle, Belvidere Fire Chief, reported one death and 28 injuries, including five hospitalized with serious injuries. More than twenty ambulances were mobilized, according to the local press.
Television footage showed injured spectators being evacuated on stretchers, and photos on social media showed a waist-deep pile of debris and a gaping hole in the roof in the venue.
Tornado in Mississippi
In the neighboring state of Indiana (North), two people were killed by a storm in Sullivan County, reported the television channel WTHI citing the Indiana police. Images posted on Twitter by the WTHI channel showed downed telephone poles, collapsed houses and debris on the roads. The Arkansas tornado hit in the afternoon, sweeping through several neighborhoods in Little Rock.
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More than 78,000 people have been without electricity in this state, according to the American site Poweroutage. Tornadoes, meteorological phenomena as impressive as they are difficult to predict, are common in the United States, especially in the center and south of the country. A week ago, a tornado swept through Mississippi, killing 25 people and causing immense property damage. President Joe Biden visited the site on Friday. In December 2021, about 80 people lost their lives after tornadoes hit Kentucky.