At least one fatality and more than two dozen injuries were reported as a multiday severe weather outbreak gripped the U.S. resulting in multiple tornadoes and grapefruit-sized hail.
Published Apr. 14, 2022 6:36 AM AKDT | Updated Apr. 16, 2022 6:59 AM AKDT
Another major outbreak of severe weather cut a destructive path across the central and southeastern United States this week, striking communities with torrential rain, powerful winds, giant hail and as many as 30 tornadoes. More than two dozen people were injured in multiple states, and one fatality was reported in Arkansas.
A woman's death occurred late Wednesday afternoon as the severe storms ripped through the South Central states. Just south of Little Rock, Arkansas, in Rison, the 20-year-old was killed after a tree crashed onto her mobile home late Wednesday afternoon, according to the Cleveland County Office of Emergency Management. According to a local news outlet, KAIT, emergency crews found the woman pinned under a tree but were unable to rescue her.
On Thursday morning, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer declared a state of emergency following the violent storms across the city Wednesday night.
An EF3 tornado was seen spinning through Salado, Texas on Tuesday.
In Louisville, Kentucky's largest metro area, a tornado touched down shortly after 8:30 on Wednesday evening, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). The twister sparked multiple fire incidents in the area, and the Kentucky Mesonet reported wind gusts of 75 mph. Three other tornadoes touched down across central Kentucky on Wednesday night. Storm damage surveys were set to be conducted on Thursday to determine the exact strength and path of the four twisters.
By Thursday afternoon, two tornadoes were confirmed to have touched down in Shelby County, Kentucky. One of those tornadoes received a preliminary EF-1 rating with estimated peak winds of 90 mph, according to National Weather Service Louisville.
By late Wednesday evening, photos and videos emerged of damage caused by the twister in Louisville. Roofs throughout the city were completely removed from homes, dozens of trees were strewn over roadways and utility poles were snapped. At one point on Wednesday evening, nearly 22,000 households in the Louisville area were without power, according to PowerOutage.US.
Earlier in the evening, tornado sirens went off in Mississippi as multiple tornado-warned storms barreled through the Magnolia State.
A tornado warning was issued in Jackson, Mississippi, for the second time in roughly two weeks. Extreme Meteorologist Reed Timmer captured video of a possible rain-wrapped tornado near the state's capital.
Thomas Winesett, a meteorologist at the NWS office in Jackson, posted a photo on Twitter showing the stack of warnings the office has issued since March 22. Winesett said 186 warnings had been issued for the storm-weary area since then.
Although much of the most intense severe weather occurred through the late afternoon and into the evening, there was some action earlier in the day farther to the west.
On Wednesday morning in Oklahoma, an EF1 tornado carved a 6.5-mile path of destruction in Stilwell, which is about 80 miles southeast of Tulsa, according to the NWS. Several roofs were blown off apartment buildings, trees were uprooted, a semi-truck was blown over and one person was injured as this twister moved through the area.
A day earlier, nearly two dozen people were injured as severe weather swept through Texas. A tornado touched down in southern Bell County, near the town of Salado, about 50 miles north of Austin, and was given a preliminary rating of EF3. NWS meteorologists said the twister packed peak wind speeds of 165 mph.
Ruth and Brian Parker, both residents of Salado, had a close encounter with the tornado. They recalled seeing it from their backyard before getting to a safe place.
Hailstone pictured by the Parker family.
“We heard really low rumbling, what sounded like thunder. I don’t know if that was it or not, but it was a constant rumble for a solid 15, 20 minutes and we were just out watching the hail, kind of watching the radar app, looking through, look up and I’m like holy moly, it’s right there,” Brian Parker told AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell in an interview. “It was close, we could see the whole funnel. It moved super slow. The first one I’ve ever seen. That was close enough.”
In addition to the twister, the storm system that ripped through Bell County unleashed what the NWS refers to as "giant hail," meaning hailstones that are in excess of 2.75 inches in diameter.
Salado resident Gina Brown shared photos on Twitter of a giant hailstone, which was larger than her hand, dwarfed a lemon it was placed next to and measured more than 5 inches in diameter.
David Blackburn, the Bell County Judge, said that more than 60 homes, businesses and structures were damaged, but no deaths were reported.
More tornadoes were reported in Minnesota, Nebraska and Iowa on Tuesday. According to the Associated Press, up to 10 twisters were reported across the northern half of Iowa, but only two had been confirmed by the NWS as of Thursday.
Additional reporting by Bill Wadell.
See more:
For the latest weather news, check back on AccuWeather.com. Watch the AccuWeather Network on DIRECTV, Frontier, Spectrum, fuboTV, Philo, and Verizon Fios. AccuWeather Now is now available on your preferred streaming platform.
No comments:
Post a Comment