More than two dozen tornadoes were reported across the region overnight. The tornado threat was forecast to ease on Sunday morning.
Severe thunderstorms and high winds in the Great Plains region on Saturday night injured residents, damaged homes and left more than 50,000 electricity customers in Oklahoma and Texas without power, the local authorities said, as more than two dozen tornadoes were reported overnight.
More than 13 million people from Texas to Illinois were under tornado watches as of 2 a.m. local time, meaning that tornadoes could occur over the next few hours. The severe weather followed a day in which tornadoes tore through parts of Nebraska and Iowa and leveled dozens of homes on Friday.
Thunderstorms were expected to move east into the Mississippi Valley on Sunday, and heavy rains were forecast in Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana, the National Weather Service said.
Tornadoes Friday and Saturday
Locations of tornado sightings or damage reported by trained spotters.
Early reports indicated that damage from the latest round of storms was concentrated in Oklahoma, where a series of tornadoes late Saturday night were reported to have ripped through parts of the state, including the cities of Sulphur, Holdenville, and Ardmore, according to the Weather Service.
There were injuries, downed power lines, flooded roads and damaged homes in several counties, the state’s Department of Emergency Management said in a statement late Saturday night.
