Tornadoes sacked the city of Texas and Florida in the United States on Thursday night, killing four people and injuring scores of others.
Three people reportedly died in Perryton, Texas, where a tornado destroyed homes and communication towers.
According to the Ochiltree County Sheriff Terry Bouchard, the victims have been identified as Becky Randall, a woman in her 60s who was found in a print shop; Cindy Bransgrove, a woman also in her 60s found in a food bank; and Matthew Ramirez, an 11-year-old boy who was found in a trailer park.
“We’re going to need a lot of support from everyone,” he said. “This is pretty devastating. We lost — I can’t tell you how many homes. It’s going to take us a while.”
Bouchard also reported that 56 people in Perryton were injured and one person — identified as 64-year-old Ruben Villegas, was missing.
One death was reported in Pensacola, Florida, when a tree fell on their home during a tornado, according to the Escambia County Fire Rescue.
Several other tornadoes were also reported throughout the night across Texas, Oklahoma, Michigan, and Florida.
According to Perryton Fire Chief Paul Dutcher, Perrtyon, a town near Texas’ state line with Oklahoma, was hit most, particularly on the north and east sides.
Dutcher estimated that the number of injured persons might stand at about 100 – the injuries ranging from minor to severe.
Xcel Energy, an electric utility and natural gas delivery company, said there was no power in Perryton. As at Friday evening, about 70% of Ochiltree County was without electricity. Across Texas over 180,000 customers were without power, the majority of the outages were in the northeastern part of the state where storms earlier in the week caused extensive damage.
“Our crews are arriving on site and are assisting in removing lines from cars and across the roads,” the company said. “We are patrolling the transmission feeds into the city and also assessing possible damage at the main substation in town.
“One of the three main transmission feeds into the city was apparently undamaged, but we de-energized it for safety reasons.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott instructed the Texas Division of Emergency Management to deploy state emergency response resources to meet urgent life-safety needs in Perryton.
“The State of Texas is swiftly deploying critical emergency response resources to provide all necessary support and assistance to protect Texans and help those impacted by tornadoes in Perryton,” Abbott said in a statement.”
“I encourage all Texans to heed the guidance of state and local officials and to take all necessary precautions to protect yourselves and your loved ones. We remain ready to quickly provide any additional resources needed over the course of this severe weather event.”
Weather alerts, including tornado warnings and severe thunderstorm watches, were issued across the South for Thursday. Georgia and Alabama also saw massive rainfall and flooding.
A severe thunderstorm is also expected in Southeastern Colorado to southwestern Kansas. Residents have been issued a watch and are told to expect strong winds up to 80 mph, hail up to 4 inches in diameter, and possible tornadoes.
Stormy weather is expected Friday from Colorado to the Gulf Coast, with violent winds and hail being the main threat. Severe storms were also alerted Friday afternoon and evening from Virginia to New Jersey.