Tornado warnings were still active in several places.
Washington:
At least nine people were killed in the central United States as tornadoes and other extreme storms hit several states, including Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma, officials said Sunday.
Rescue efforts were underway and hundreds of thousands of people were without power after storms hit the Southern Plains region early Saturday.
In Texas, Cooke County Sheriff Ray Sappington told ABC affiliate WFAA that five people were dead after a tornado ripped through the Valley View area, north of Dallas.
“Unfortunately, I think that number will increase,” Sappington told The Weather Channel, adding that search and rescue operations were underway.
The twister destroyed homes and a gas station and overturned vehicles on a highway. Sappington called the damage “quite extensive.”
There were “many” injuries, but none were life-threatening, he previously told ABC affiliate WFAA.
At least two people were killed in Oklahoma late Saturday after a tornado struck Mayes County, county emergency management chief Johnny Janzen told the Fox News affiliate in Tulsa.
And two people were killed in storms in northern Arkansas in the early hours of Sunday, local authorities confirmed.
As far north as Indiana, the start of the Indianapolis 500 was postponed Sunday due to storms in the area, with fans asked to leave the stands and seek shelter.
A crowd of 125,000 people was expected for the race, one of the most emblematic auto races in America.
As the storm system moved across the country, about 470,000 people were without power in states stretching from Texas to Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky, according to the website Poweroutage.us.
Tornado warnings were still active in several places.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
