At least six people, including children, died after a tornado ripped through northeast Texas over Memorial Day weekend.
The deaths occurred in Cooke County, Texas, and three deaths occurred in a single home during the devastating tornado, Sheriff Ray Sappington said. he told CNN.
As of Sunday morning, two more children in the area remain missing and 20 people were injured, NBC Dallas Fort Worth. reported.
Across the central United States, severe weather has left nearly 400,000 people without power and more than 110 million Americans are under alert for dire fronts.
Sappington said most of the deaths in Texas occurred in a manufactured home community called FRF Estates in Valley View, where crews continue to conduct search and rescue operations amid “significant damage,” WFAA reported.
A giant tornado is seen forming in Windhorst, Texas, on Saturday. The tornadoes would pass through areas surrounding the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth in the northeast of the state.
Pictured: The gas station in Valley View, Texas, near which between 60 and 80 people took shelter during Saturday night’s tornado.
The Shell gas station was part of the AP Travel Center, where dozens of people went Saturday night to hide from the tornado. In total, five people were reported dead in Cooke County.
A car at the gas station is severely damaged by the tornado
The tornado also decimated the AP Travel Center in Valley View, where between 60 and 80 people had driven to shelter in the parking lot, bathrooms or at the Shell gas station that the storm has since reduced to rubble.
Outside of Cooke County, millions of Americans in central Mississippi and the Ohio and Tennessee river valleys are at risk of large hail storms, fast winds and tornadoes.
Residents of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas also fell victim to extreme weather Saturday night, and more than 250,000 homes in the Plains and surrounding areas were without power.
Currently, more than 400,000 customers in the lower-central United States are without power, with the hardest hit areas being Arkansas and Missouri.
The stormy weather is moving east, away from Texas and Oklahoma and toward the Ohio River Valley states, triggering a new tornado watch for parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee until 10 a.m. CT, according to the NOAA Storm Prediction Center.
Kentucky and Tennessee are starting to be hit by power outages, with more than 67,000 customers without power.
More than 15 million Americans are at increased risk from storms, most of them in large population centers such as Indianapolis, Nashville and Cincinnati.
Meanwhile, local officials in Texas are picking up the pieces and continue searching for possible victims.
Sappington told WFAA Sunday morning that he expects the death toll in Cooke County to “go up.”
A decimated building on Marina Circle on Lake Ray Roberts in Denton County, Texas
A tornado tore through this parking lot north of Denton, Texas
Debris is scattered in this parking lot and a man is seen wandering around the damage early Sunday morning.
Denton County, Texas, experienced a possible tornado that injured an unknown number of residents, overturned 18-wheelers and downed trees and power lines, according to local officials.
The nearly 80 people at the AP Travel Center in Valley View were trapped until the storm passed further east, Sappington said.
Some of the 20 people who were injured were at the gas station inside the travel center, but none of the injuries were life-threatening.
People’s vehicles in the travel center parking lot were damaged or destroyed, leaving about 40 people stranded, although a bus eventually arrived and transported them to another location so they could be picked up by their families.
Other parts of Texas around the Dallas Fort Worth area suffered catastrophic destruction, including nearby Denton County, where a possible tornado injured an unknown number of residents, overturned 18-wheelers and downed trees and power lines, CNN reported.
Officials responded to a number of different locations, including “homes and trailer parks,” Denton County spokeswoman Dawn Cobb said in a news release.
Several homes in the neighboring town of Celina were also damaged by Saturday’s “apparent tornado activity,” officials there said.
Cooke County Sheriff Ray Sappington says he expects the death toll, which currently stands at five, to rise as search and rescue efforts continue.
A home in Valley View appears surrounded by debris Sunday after a tornado.
Fox Dallas Fort Worth spoke with Celina resident Kim Weston, who returned home after the storm to find her home had been destroyed.
Weston’s mother, who also lives in the area, was trapped in her home at the time but was later rescued, Fox reported. reported.
“We’ve heard that everyone on the street is okay and unfortunately our house was a total loss, but we’re thankful that we’re okay,” Weston said.
‘It was a blessing that we were not at home. The neighbor across the street had a motor home and landed at our house. The only part left standing is where we would have taken refuge.’
A probable tornado also swept through Rogers County, Oklahoma, near the city of Tulsa.
The city of Claremore, a major municipality in that county, suffered “extensive damage,” officials said, adding that most residents would be without power for “an extended period.”
WFAA obtained dramatic images of two people driving directly through the tornado. They were identified as Valenia Gill and Brenda Procter Dance, and they were driving south on I-35 toward the Texas city of Sanger around 10:45 p.m. on Saturday.
A house is reduced to nothing more than a pile of rubble in North Texas
‘We are right in the middle of the tornado Brenda, what do I do? The car shakes,” says Valenia, as the wind carries the debris into the vehicle.
The gusts get stronger within seconds and the ladies stop the car, as Brenda repeats, “Cover your head, cover your head.”
Once the tornado starts to calm down a bit, Valenia keeps the car stationary and says, “I don’t want to go anywhere yet.” I’m shaking.’
As the various storms move toward the Midwest, forecasters say there is a Level 3 of 5 risk of severe thunderstorms over parts of the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys through Monday morning. That area could also experience EF2 to EF5 tornadoes.
However, severe weather persists in the center of the country, with a risk of Level 4 to 5 thunderstorms in parts of the central and southern Plains through Sunday morning.
The thunderstorms that forecasters expect to see in the Midwest on Sunday afternoon will grow and reach areas further south and east during the afternoon and evening.
The width of the storm could extend north to the Great Lakes and south to parts of Louisiana and the Florida panhandle.
This means major airport hubs Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Nashville could be hit by heavy rain and lightning, resulting in canceled and delayed flights over Memorial Day weekend.
Record heat waves will also hit the southern US over the holiday weekend.
Houston, New Orleans, Miami, Mobile, Alabama; Tampa, Florida, and Charleston, South Carolina, are cities where temperatures will be more like July than late May, CNN reported.
Daily highs exceeding 115 degrees are possible in some areas, the Storm Prediction Center said.