Large area of US under tornado watch, at least 34 people dead

Portions of West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania were under a new tornado watch issued on Sunday by the National Weather Service, as the death toll from storms rose to at least 34 people in six states since Friday.

At least 150,000 consumers have no power in the large, affected area, according to the website PowerOutage. Missouri reported the largest number of deaths, 12 fatalities spanning five counties, the state's highway patrol posted on X.

Robbie Myers, the director of emergency management in Missouri's Butler County, told reporters that more than 500 homes, a church and grocery store in the county were destroyed. A mobile home park had been "totally destroyed," he said.

“Everything around it here is really bad. The trailer park up the street had fatalities. So, I mean, we don't have nothing compared to anything like that. I still have a home. They don't," Rick Brittingham, a Missouri resident, told Reuters from Butler County. Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves posted on X that six deaths had been reported in the state – one in Covington County, two in Jeff Davis County and three in Walthall County.

According to preliminary assessments, 29 people were injured statewide and 21 counties sustained storm damage, Reeves said.

In Arkansas, three deaths occurred, the state's Department of Emergency Management said, adding that there were 32 injuries.

Eight deaths were confirmed in a crash involving more than 50 cars in Sherman County in Kansas, caused by a severe dust storm, the Kansas Highway Patrol said in a statement. Many injured travelers were taken to local hospitals.

At least two people died in Alabama due to the severe weather, governor Kay Ivey said in a post on X. "We have reports of damage in 52 of our 67 counties," the governor said.

Crashes caused by dust storms near Amarillo, Texas, resulted in three deaths, according to the state's Department of Public Safety.

Twenty-six tornadoes were reported but not confirmed to have touched down late Friday and early Saturday as a low-pressure system drove powerful thunderstorms across parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi and Missouri, said David Roth, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center.