Hours later, another tornado or extreme gust of wind was believed to have ripped open the roof of an auditorium in northern Illinois, causing the ceiling to collapse, while a rock band performed on stage, officials said.
One person died and 28 others were rushed by ambulance to area hospitals, five of them with serious injuries, Shawn Schadle, the fire chief in Belvidere, a riverside town near the Wisconsin border, told reporters.
He said about 260 people attended the concert at the city’s Apollo Threatre, where the band Morbid Angel was part of the group’s “Tour of Terror.”
The Arkansas afternoon storm and the Illinois storm were both caused by one of several violent thunderstorms that swept across a vast swathe of the U.S. heartland as part of a much larger expanse of extreme spring weather.
The University of Arkansas Medical Sciences Hospital, the region’s only major trauma center, has issued a Level 1 mass casualty warning after the tornado struck Little Rock, the state’s capital and most populous city, in the mid-afternoon.
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders told a late-night news conference that the tornado claimed at least two lives in Wynne, about 100 miles east of Little Rock near the Tennessee border.
Nearly 30 people in Little Rock were transported by firefighters and other emergency personnel to area hospitals for injuries, Mayor Frank Scott Jr. said. to reporters, adding, “By the grace of God, we suffered no fatalities”.
Police said several areas in the western end of the city were worst hit and the mayor described property damage as “extensive”.
In the neighboring town of North Little Rock, across the Arkansas River from the state capital, the Baptist Health Medical Center reported treating 11 patients from the storm, one of whom was in critical condition. Television station KTHV-TV reported a storm-related death in North Little Rock, but that could not be immediately confirmed.
Between five and 10 other patients were being treated at the emergency department of Unity Health Hospital in nearby Jacksonville, administrator Kevin Burton said.
Wynne police chief Richard Dennis was quoted by Jonesboro, Arkansas television station KAIT8-TV as describing the storm’s aftermath in his town as “utter destruction,” adding that dozens of people were trapped in rubble.
Aerial photos posted by The Weather Channel showed a badly damaged area of Little Rock stretching over several blocks with numerous homes without roofs and walls, some collapsed, and overturned vehicles dotted all over the streets. KATV posted an image of a badly damaged high school in Wynne.
The turbulent weather came a week after a swarm of thunderstorms unleashed a deadly tornado that devastated the Mississippi town of Rolling Fork, destroying many of the community’s 400 homes and killing 26 people.
CLOSED BELL IN NAIL SALON
A video recorded Friday from a window at a Baptist Health facility and verified by Reuters showed a towering, swirling black column of air, moisture and dust slowly plowing through the landscape in the near distance.
A woman said in a live interview broadcast by KATV that she was visiting a salon to get her nails done when she looked out the window and saw leaves falling shortly before the building’s roof was torn off.
She and others in the store took cover in a back room when the tornado hit and emerged to find the ceiling gone, the woman, who appeared unharmed, said.
Governor Sanders said she had mobilized about 100 National Guard troops to assist with relief efforts, and signed an executive order to immediately approve $250,000 from the state’s disaster relief and recovery fund.
The twister struck as a blast of extreme spring weather swept across much of the United States, threatening the mid-country from Texas to the Great Lakes with thunderstorms and tornadoes.
The National Weather Service (NWS) tracked at least three dozen unconfirmed tornado reports in Arkansas, Tennessee, Illinois and Iowa.
Tens of millions of Americans in the Great Plains, Midwest, South and East were issued warnings and advisories Friday night and weekend for various weather hazards, the NWS said.
In addition to Arkansas, southern Missouri, western Kentucky and western Tennessee were deemed to be most at risk for severe thunderstorms that could produce violent tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds, the weather service said.
The northern, colder edge of the storm system, stretching from the High Plains to the upper Great Lakes, was expected to bring heavy snow, coupled with wind gusts of up to 50 mph to create blizzards.