More than a dozen have died in Missouri and Arkansas after a violent storm system swept across the country, slamming the Mississippi Valley and Deep South.
A brutal combination of tornadoes, severe storms and whipping winds has left at least 10 dead in Missouri, state officials said Saturday morning. Several others were also injured, according to the state’s highway patrol.
One man was killed after a tornado tore apart his home.
“It was unrecognizable as a home. Just a debris field,” Butler County Coroner Jim Akers told the Associated Press. “The floor was upside down. We were walking on walls.” A woman in the home was saved by rescuers, the outlet noted.
The devastation from the storms also spread to Arkansas and Texas.
Debris covers the road during a severe storm slams the area north of Seymour, Missouri late Friday, March 14, 2025. (Trooper Austin James/Missouri State Highway Patrol via AP) (AP)
Three people died in Arkansas, officials said Saturday morning, while 29 others suffered injuries.
Meanwhile, after a dust storm ripped through Texas, the state’s department of public safety on Friday reported two dozen crashes, including three deaths Friday in three separate car crashes due to the low visibility and high winds.
Americans across the country could see extreme weather conditions this weekend as the storm system moves east. More than 288,000 Americans were without power across as of Saturday morning, according to poweroutage.us.
A “tornado outbreak” is expected across the central Gulf Coast states and Deep South on Saturday, according to the Storm Prediction Center. Parts of Tennessee, Louisiana and Mississippi are now under a tornado warning on Saturday morning as what officials are calling a “tornadic thunderstorm” threatens the region, the National Weather Service said.
Flash floods are also expected to slam Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee, with warnings in effect through Saturday afternoon, the National Weather Service warned.
A blaze overtakes a home in Stillwater, Oklahoma on Friday as wildfires in the state destroy more than 200 homes (REUTERS)
Heavy winds threaten a wall of states between the northern Michigan to the Florida panhandle, with gusts predicted to reach up to 50 mph in some states, according to the National Weather Service.
Minnesota and the Dakotas could even see blizzards, with forceful winds and heavy snowfall of up to eight inches expected through Saturday afternoon and evening.
While states in the northern U.S. get dumped with snow, fires are devastating Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas. In some Oklahoma communities, officials ordered locals to evacuate as more than 130 fires were reported across the state, the Associated Press reported.
At a press conference Saturday, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt said nearly 300 homes were damaged and more than 170,000 acres had burned due to the fires.
—
Additional reporting by AP.
