Tornadoes combined with heavy rainfall and flooding led to 15 fatalities across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Kentucky over the weekend.
One tornado initiated in northern Texas on Saturday night. Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) confirmed on Sunday that seven individuals had died due to storm-related incidents. Cooke County Sheriff Ray Sappington reported approximately 20 injuries, including three individuals trapped in the debris of their house. Abbott later extended a disaster proclamation to include the affected county and Denton County.
The tornadoes proceeded to move north and east, hitting Oklahoma and resulting in two deaths. Arkansas was next in the tornado’s trajectory, with five recorded fatalities. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR) responded with an emergency order to allocate necessary funds for relief.
In Louisville, Kentucky, Mayor Craig Greenberg reported one fatality due to severe weather, as the state remained under a tornado watch on Sunday. Kentucky experienced the highest number of power outages, with over 166,000 customers affected, according to PowerOutage.us.
Besides the fatalities, all the impacted states reported structural damages to homes, businesses, and even a lakefront marina in one instance. Approximately 440,000 customers in the storm’s path experienced power outages.
