26 Died As Tornado Hits US Midwest And South

On Saturday, storms that may have produced dozens of tornadoes tore through the South and Midwest, destroying the roof of a crowded concert venue in Illinois, tearing a path through the capital city of Arkansas, and killing at least 26 people in small towns and major cities.

At least eight states experienced confirmed or suspected tornadoes that obliterated houses and businesses, split trees, and decimated entire neighborhoods. At least nine people were killed in one Tennessee County, four in Wynne, a tiny town in Arkansas, three in Sullivan, Indiana, and four in Springfield, Illinois, among other places.

2600 buildings were destroyed by the tornado

In addition to the one recorded near Little Rock, Arkansas, where city officials claimed more than 2,600 buildings were in a tornado’s path, other fatalities from the storms that hit Friday night into Saturday were also reported in Alabama and Mississippi.

The roof of the high school in Wynne, a town of 8,000 people located 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Memphis, Tennessee, was torn off and its windows were blown out when residents got up on Saturday. Massive trees with reduced-to-nub trunks were lying on the ground. Homes and companies were plagued by shattered walls, windows, and roofs.

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Stories of destruction

Ashley Macmillan, a civilian said she, her husband, and their children huddled with their dogs in a small bathroom as a tornado passed, “praying and saying goodbye to each other, because we thought we were dead.” A falling tree seriously damaged their home, but they were unhurt.

“We could feel the house shaking, we could hear loud noises, dishes rattling. And then it just got calm,” she said.

Another incident came from Jeffrey Day when he said he called his daughter after seeing on the news that their community of Adamsville was being hit. Huddled in a closet with her 2-year-old son as the storm passed over, she answered the phone screaming.

“She kept asking me, ‘What do I do, daddy?’” Day said, tearing up. “I didn’t know what to say.”

After the storm passed, his daughter crawled out of her destroyed home and over barbed wire and drove to a nearby family.