A tornado spotted Sunday near the West Kentucky Correctional Complex in Eddyville, Kentucky.
Nicole Patton
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Nicole Patton
Powerful tornadoes and thunderstorms ripped through parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kentucky late Saturday night and Sunday morning, killing more than 20 people and causing widespread damage.
Hundreds of thousands of residents were without power Monday morning across a vast area stretching from Texas to Virginia, according to the site poweroutage.us. Forecasters warned that dangerous storms would move eastward into parts of the lower Great Lakes, mid-Atlantic and Southeast states.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency Monday morning in his state. At least four people aged 34 to 67 were killed in storms overnight, Beshear said Monday afternoon.
On Sunday, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a news conference that the statewide death toll had risen to eight.
“Bryan and I are praying for the communities affected by last night’s storm and for the families of the Arkansans we lost,” Sanders said.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said “at least seven lives” were lost to the weekend’s storms.
The Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management said two deaths were confirmed in the town of Pryor in Mayes County.
In Louisville, Kentucky, Mayor Craig Greenberg confirmed one death.
Kentucky begins to recover after devastating storm
Kentucky communities experienced storms that produced high winds, multiple tornadoes and hail, temporarily closing roads and causing tremendous damage to homes and businesses, Gov. Beshear told reporters during a press briefing early Monday afternoon.
The four confirmed deaths include an as-yet-unidentified 67-year-old woman in Mercer County, a 62-year-old woman in Hardin County, a 48-year-old woman in Hopkins County and a 34-year-old man. -an old man from Jefferson County. A fifth person was seriously injured and “still fighting for their life,” Beshear said.
At its peak, the storm knocked out power to 215,144 homes. As of Monday afternoon, more than 150,000 customers were still without power. Residents living in western Kentucky and Trigg County could be without power for several days due to significant damage to electrical infrastructure.
Beshear said there was at least one tornado on the ground for at least 40 miles, as well as a number of other suspected tornadoes that “rotated down and came up.” The National Weather Service has not yet confirmed these tornadoes.
Kentucky is no stranger to such extreme weather and tornado damage: more than 70 people died after violent tornadoes struck the state in December 2021. Some of the same counties hit by that storm have were hit again on Sunday evening.
“At least one family that lost their home in the 2021 tornadoes has lost their home again,” Beshear said.
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