Tornadoes in the United States: The death toll rises as severe storms wreak havoc on several states

At least 26 people were killed when tornadoes ripped through towns and cities in the United States’ South and Midwest.

Huge storms devastated several states, destroying homes and leaving thousands without power.

According to the National Weather Service, there have been more than 80 tornado reports since March 31.

There have been fatalities in Arkansas, Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.

One storm ripped through the Arkansas town of Wynne, which is about 100 miles (170 kilometers) east of the state capital, Little Rock.

Ashley Macmillan described how she, her husband, and their children huddled in the bathroom with their dogs as a tornado passed overhead, “praying and saying goodbye to each other, because we thought we were dead.”

Their home was severely damaged by a falling tree, but they were unharmed.

“We could feel the house shaking, hear loud noises, dishes rattling, and then it just calmed down,” Ms Macmillan told the Associated Press.

Wynne High School was severely damaged, with some buildings completely destroyed. Lisa Worden, one of its teachers, said the decision to send students home early was critical.

“We got out at 1:30, which was such a Godsend from our superintendent, because otherwise kids would have been on buses and teachers would have still been here, which would have been even more devastating,” she told Reuters.

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency on Friday, activating the national guard to assist with recovery efforts.

She stated that she discussed the situation with President Joe Biden, who promised federal assistance.

The storms on Friday also caused the roof of a theatre in Belvidere, Illinois, to collapse, killing one person and injuring 28 others.

Hundreds of thousands of people are without power across several states as storms continue to move east.

According to the US PowerOutage website, Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania are the hardest hit.

The Storm Prediction Center warned in a bulletin that some of the predicted tornadoes could track across the ground for long distances.

The deadly tornadoes come just a week after a rare, long-track twister in Mississippi killed 26 people.

Last week’s tornado in Mississippi traveled 59 miles (94 kilometers) and lasted about an hour and ten minutes – an unusually long time for a storm to last. According to officials, it caused damage to approximately 2,000 homes.

President Biden paid a visit to the state on Friday to express his condolences.