Tornadoes rip through the southern and midwestern US, leaving several dead and injured

(CNN) — Devastating storms and tornadoes ripped through the South and Midwest from Friday through early Saturday morning, killing at least five people, injuring several others, trapping people in their homes, and damaging businesses and critical infrastructure, threatening to more severe weather ahead Saturday afternoon.

More than 50 preliminary reports of tornadoes were made Friday in at least six states, including Arkansas, where the storms killed three people: two in the small town of Wynne and another person in North Little Rock, local officials said.

Two people were killed in Indiana by a storm Friday night that damaged homes and a volunteer fire department near Sullivan, a city about 35 miles southwest of Indianapolis, state police Sgt. Matt Ames said.

At least 50 people were sent to hospitals in Arkansas’ Pulaski County where a tornado ripped through the Little Rock area on Friday, county spokeswoman Madeline Roberts said. Five others were hospitalized after a tornado ripped through Covington, Tennessee, Friday, according to a Baptist Memorial Health Care spokesperson.
Preliminary information shows that at least 22 tornadoes were reported in Illinois, eight in Iowa, four in Tennessee, five in Wisconsin and a couple in Mississippi.

In Arkansas, at least a dozen tornadoes were reported, including in the Little Rock area. Tornadoes in that state left homes nearly flattened and roads covered with what were once the roofs and walls of buildings.

William Williams, who told CNN affiliate KATV that he is an employee at a Kroger supermarket in Little Rock, said he is “grateful to be alive” after a tornado passed near the area while he was working Friday afternoon. He took refuge inside the store and then went outside to check on the injured people, including a woman who he said had a serious leg injury.

“It all happened in about five seconds. It’s here, boom,” Williams told KATV. “You could hear a lot of commotion and stuff. … I go outside, and it’s crazy. People had blood all over their faces. … I am grateful to be alive.”

About 40 miles east of Little Rock, the town of Wynne was “basically cut in half by damage from east to west,” Mayor Jennifer Hobbs told CNN Friday night.

“We are still in triage mode,” Hobbs said, adding that crews were trying to determine the severity of the damage and potential injuries.

In northern Illinois, more than 200 people were inside the Apollo Theater in Belvidere for an event when its roof collapsed Friday night, killing one person and injuring dozens, the city’s fire marshal said. The collapse occurred as a storm line with 50 mph winds and hail moved through the area, according to officials and the National Weather Service. It was not immediately clear if the storm caused the roof of the theater to collapse.

Twenty-eight people were taken to hospitals as a result of the collapse, Belvidere Fire Chief Shawn Schadle said.

Friday’s severe storms came a week after severe weather swept through the Southeast, killing at least 26 people. An overnight tornado, which makes people more prone to extensive damage, ripped through much of Rolling Fork, Mississippi, where estimated top winds of 170 mph roared.

More tornadoes could be on the way

By Saturday, about 55 million people are at slight risk of severe weather, a level 2 of 5, in parts of the Ohio Valley, the Northeast, including New York City and Philadelphia, and parts of the Southeast, according to the Storm Prediction Center. .

Scattered strong to severe thunderstorms could occur in these areas, with hail and a few tornadoes possible, the center said.

Large hail turned dangerous Friday as it pummeled northern Illinois, cracking and denting car windshields, according to a Facebook post from the Fulton County Disaster and Emergency Services Agency.

Eighty miles southeast of there, several businesses were “basically destroyed,” Sheriff Jack Campbell told CNN, and as many as 40 homes were damaged around Sherman, less than 10 miles north of Springfield.

Nearly 300,000 homes and businesses were blacked out early Saturday morning in Indiana, Illinois, Arkansas and Tennessee, with about a third of reported outages in Indiana, according to the tracking website PowerOutage.us.

In Arkansas, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency, noting that the state will “spare no resources” to respond to and recover from the storm, and activated the state National Guard.

CNN’s Aya Elamroussi, Rebekah Riess, Sara Smart, Mallika Kallingal, Andy Rose, Gene Norman, Mike Saenz, Paradise Afshar and Christina Maxouris contributed to this report.