Three people have been killed after tornadoes touched down in states across the Midwest including Arkansas, Illinois, Tennessee and Iowa. In one of the largest, a monster tornado was caught on camera ripping apart Arkansas capital Little Rock.
According to Daily Mail, The storms came just a week after more than two dozen deadly twisters tore through Mississippi and parts of Alabama killing at least 26. On Friday evening, a local area hospital reported treating at least 21 patients with 5 in critical condition. All had injuries from the tornado that touched down in the Little Rock area.
The tornado splintering homes and flattened entire neighborhoods overturning vehicles and tossing trees and debris onto roads as people raced for shelter. Roofs were ripped away roofs and walls from many buildings while trees were uprooted trees and vehicles were flipped over.
The twister was spawned by one of a numerous violent thunderstorms raking a vast swath of the U.S. heartland as part of a much larger expanse of extreme spring weather.
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences hospital, the state’s only major trauma center, declared a level-1 mass casualty alert after the tornado struck Little Rock.
‘We’re operating in red status, with all hands on deck,’ said Aaron Gilkey, spokesperson for the Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services (MEMS) agency.
There were two more confirmed twisters in Iowa, damaging hail fell in Illinois and wind-whipped grass fires blazed in Oklahoma, part of a massive storm system threatening a broad swath of the country that is home to some 85 million people in the South and Midwest.
Footage of the ferocious weather system was filmed from the 7th floor of the Little Rock Baptist Medical Center. The person filming could be heard gasping at the massive swirling twister as it came ever-closer.
A man, who appeared unaware of the vortex, was filmed standing on the roof of another building as the powerful tornado – which reportedly reached level 3 or ‘mass casualty’ strength – traveled towards him.
Another video in the wake of the massive system revealed debris scattered in the streets of Little Rock, which is just three hours north west of Rolling Fork, where deadly storms hit last week.
The National Weather Service also reported that tornado activity had destroyed several homes and downed trees in and around Little Rock.
Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. said on Twitter that he had asked Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders to mobilize National Guard troops to assist in the emergency response.
Sanders signed an executive order to immediately authorize $250,000 from the state disaster response and recovery fund to be used at the discretion of the director of the state Division of Emergency Management, a local reporter tweeted.
The twister struck the capital city of Arkansas as an immense blast of extreme spring weather swept much of the United States, menacing the nation’s midsection from Texas to the Great Lakes with dangerous thunderstorms and tornadoes.
‘At this time, we know of 24 people who have been hospitalized at Little Rock hospitals and we are not aware of any fatalities in Little Rock,’ Mayor Frank Scott Jr. said on Twitter.
Separately, Baptist Health Medical Center in the adjoining town of North Little Rock, just across the Arkansas River from the capital, reported treating 11 patients from the storm, one of them in critical condition. Local television station KTHV-TV reported one storm-related death in North Little Rock, but that could not be immediately confirmed.
