Vilonia, Arkansas: More than 280 people were killed in seven southern US states in one of the deadliest series of tornadoes to hit the United States in recent decades, officials said on Thursday.
Most of the deaths occurred on Wednesday
The National Weather Service issued a high risk warning for severe weather in a stretch extending from northeast of Memphis to just northeast of Dallas and covering a large swath of Arkansas.
It last issued such a warning on April 16, when dozens of tornadoes hit North Carolina and killed 21 people. The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management confirmed on Wednesday morning that the latest victim died when a storm moved through Sharp County.
Officials said the person was in a home near Arkansas Highway 230 but didn't know exactly how the person died or whether a tornado had touched down in the area.
Dozens of tornado warnings had been issued in Arkansas on Tuesday night. Strong winds peeled part of the roof off of a medical building next to a hospital in West Memphis, near the Tennessee border, but no one was inside.
At least 100 homes in the town of Edom were damaged on Tuesday night, and a woman was injured when her mobile home was destroyed, officials said. There were also minor injuries reported in Louisiana when a trailer at an oil drilling site turned over in high winds.
Lightning strike
In southwestern Michigan, nine people were sent to the hospital, one with serious injuries, when lightning struck a park where children and adults were playing football, police said.
The latest round of storms began as communities in much of the region struggled with flooding and damage from earlier twisters. In Arkansas, a tornado smashed Vilonia, just north of Little Rock, on Monday night, ripping the roof off the grocery store, flattening homes and tossing vehicles into the air.
An early warning may have saved Lisa Watson's life in that case. She packed up her three children and was speeding away from the Black Oak Ranch subdivision in Vilonia when she looked to her left and saw the twister approach.
Two of her neighbours died in their mobile homes, and a visiting couple who took shelter in a shipping container where the husband stored tools died when the container was blown at least 150 feet into a creek.
