What happened?
A tornado outbreak tore through six states on Friday night: Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee.
The tornadoes were part of a weather system that was wreaking havoc in many parts of the United States, causing substantial snowfall across parts of the upper Midwest and western Great Lakes.
Dozens of people were killed.
Kentucky’s governor said on Sunday morning that more than 80 people had been killed in a tornado whose path exceeded 200 miles, and that the state’s death toll likely would rise above 100.
A tornado caused the walls and roof of an Amazon warehouse in Illinois to collapse, leaving workers trapped inside. At least six people died, and search efforts for additional victims continued on Sunday.
The authorities identified those killed at the Amazon facility as Deandre Morrow, 28; Kevin Dickey, 62; Clayton Lynn Cope, 29; Etheria Hebb, 34; Larry Virden, 46; Austin McEwen, 26.
Four people died in Tennessee. In Arkansas, at least one person, a 94-year-old man, was killed in a nursing home in Monette, and another person died at a Dollar General store in nearby Leachville.
Across the affected states, the total number of people killed and injured was not yet known, and search-and-rescue operations were continuing in several places on Sunday.
What’s the damage like?
Officials across the six-state area were still assessing the extent of the damage on Sunday. Local news reports and videos on social media showed crumbled buildings and downed trees across the storm’s path.
On Saturday night, about 77,000 customers were without power in Kentucky and 53,000 in Tennessee, according to PowerOutage.us. By early Sunday afternoon, nearly 54,000 customers were still without power in Kentucky, and around 23,000 customers were still waiting for service to be restored in Tennessee.
The storms also caused a freight train to derail in Hopkins County, Ky., although no injuries were reported.
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