Violent hurricanes and tornadoes have killed at least two people and caused significant damage in the United States. The states of Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky were particularly affected, as local media reported. There were more than 20 injured, CNN reported. According to ABC News, at least eight tornadoes were recorded in the evening within a few hours.
Two people were killed in the storm in Lakeview (Ohio), around 200 kilometers north of Dayton, in a community of mobile homes (transportable houses), Sheriff Randall Dodds said overnight, according to media reports. “The damage here is just unbelievable,” NBC News quoted him as saying.
Severe devastation
“It’s just devastation,” Lakeview Local Chamber of Commerce President Amber Fagan told ABC 6 News. “I have never seen anything like this in my entire life. Our community building is destroyed, our laundromat is gone,” she added. Photos in local media showed covered houses and broken trees.
In the small town of Winchester, Indiana, there were “many, many serious injuries,” said a police spokesman. He couldn’t give exact numbers. There had previously been reports of at least three deaths there. However, the spokesman could not confirm this. A more precise picture of the situation will only be possible once collapsed buildings have been examined.
In the Randolph district, where Winchester is also located, a supermarket and a fast food restaurant were also destroyed, local media reported. In the town of Selma, which has around 750 inhabitants and is around 25 kilometers to the west, the storm damaged around 50 percent of all buildings, the civil protection agency said. Fortunately, there were only a few slightly injured people there.
There were also reports of at least 50 buildings damaged by storms in the town of Milton, Kentucky.
Power outages in many places
The reports continued that there was a power outage in many places due to damaged cables. According to the site Poweroutage.us, around 50,000 homes in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky were without electricity as of Friday morning. Many schools remained closed on Friday.
Severe storms had already hit the states of Kansas and Missouri on Wednesday. Hail fell in some places – with clumps the size of a baseball. US media spoke of “gorilla hail”. Meanwhile, Colorado experienced heavy snowfall.
Experts attribute the increase in natural disasters in the USA – storms, floods and forest fires – to the consequences of climate change.
2024-03-15 16:16:21
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