The small town of Sulfur in southern Oklahoma was hit particularly hard on Saturday. A woman died there as the tornado moved through the streets at night. Images and videos published on online networks showed numerous destroyed buildings. Rescue workers moved from house to house and car to car in search of victims and survivors.
“It looks like every business downtown has been destroyed,” Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said at a news conference. “Fortunately there weren’t that many people there at 10:30 that night.” Stitt emphasized that the tornadoes were the worst he had experienced since he began his term in office six years ago.
According to media reports, at least two people were killed in the city of Holdenville in the same state, including a four-month-old baby. One person also died on a highway in the city of Marietta. According to a report in the Washington Post, a tornado in the town of Ardmore threw debris up to 6,100 meters high. Within two hours of the first hurricane’s passage, two additional storms came close to the site.
According to the National Weather Service, the hurricanes reached wind speeds of up to 130 miles per hour in Sulfur and Marietta. They were ranked in the third highest of five categories. Oklahoma Gov. Stitt declared a 30-day state of emergency to get aid to 12 of the hardest-hit counties more quickly.
After 78 tornadoes were reported on Friday, mainly in the states of Nebraska and Iowa, a new weather front brought 35 hurricanes from northern Texas and Oklahoma to Missouri on Saturday, according to the weather service.
In some places, the hurricanes brought up to 18 centimeters of rain. Meteorologists warned of the ongoing risk of flash floods, hail and more tornadoes. More than 50,000 homes in Texas and more than 30,000 homes in Oklahoma were without power Sunday afternoon, according to the website poweroutage.us.
The region is known for the frequency and strength of tornadoes that pass through the area each spring. However, multiple separate outbreaks in consecutive days are extremely rare, according to meteorologists.
