At least 15 people have been killed in tornadoes that ravaged the states of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas in the central United States overnight, destroying homes and plunging thousands into darkness amid rising temperatures.
The death toll was likely to rise as search and rescue operations were underway for some people who remained missing, according to news reports.
Officials said multiple people were transported to hospitals by ambulance and helicopter in Denton County in Texas.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Sunday said about 100 people were injured, noting that the exact toll was "hard to tell with certainty".
He said that seven deaths were reported in Cooke County, Texas, near the Oklahoma border, where a tornado Saturday night plowed through a rural area near a mobile home park. The dead included two children.
More than 200 houses as well as other buildings were destroyed and more than 100 others were damaged, Abbott added.
More than 4,70,000 people were without power in states stretching from Texas to Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky, according to a power outage website.
The storms inflicted their worst damage in a region spanning from north of Dallas to the northwest corner of Arkansas, and the system threatened to bring more violent weather to other parts of the Midwest later in the day. By Monday, forecasters said, the greatest risk would shift to the east, covering a broad swath of the country from Alabama to near New York City.
The system causing the latest severe weather was expected to move toward the East Coast on Monday, bringing disruptive high winds and large hail from DC through the Southeast.
Nearly 800 tornadoes have been recorded in the United States since the beginning of 2024, significantly exceeding the normal rate.
