At least 21 people were killed across four U.S. states as of Monday afternoon and hundreds of buildings wrecked by tornado-spawning storms that swept the Southern Plains and the Ozark Mountains. The death toll over the three-day Memorial Day holiday weekend included at least eight fatalities in Arkansas, seven in Texas, four in Kentucky and two in Oklahoma, according to tallies by state emergency authorities.
The devastating storms had hit almost the entire state of Kentucky. The storms damaged 100 state highways and roads, officials said. At least seven people died – including a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old from a family – and nearly 100 were injured on Saturday night when a powerful tornado struck communities in North Texas near the Oklahoma border, Governor Greg Abbott told a Sunday news conference.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans were without power on Monday due to the weather, according to the PowerOutage.US tracking website. In Kentucky alone, more than 160,000 customers lacked electricity.
Harold Brooks, a senior scientist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma said a persistent pattern of warm, moist air is to blame for the string of tornadoes over the past two months. That warm moist air is at the northern edge of a heat dome bringing temperatures typically seen at the height of summer to late May. Forecasters have warned of more severe weather.
The latest extreme weather came just days after a powerful tornado ripped through an Iowa town, killing four people, and more twisters touched down in Texas last week.
