Bangladesh storm leaves at least nine dead, 1,000 homeless
PUBLISHED ON APR 28, 2014 1:45 PM
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DHAKA (AFP) - A severe storm left at least nine people dead and about 1,000 homeless
after hitting northern Bangladesh overnight, the police and a local government official said
Monday.
The storm tore through dozens of villages in northern Netrokona district close to the border
with India, destroying homes and wrecking rice paddy fields, they said.
"At least nine people including a family of four were killed in the storm," district police
official Rashel Miah told AFP, adding that the full extent of the storm's destruction was not
yet known.
"Up to 20 people were injured including one whose condition is very critical. The family of
four include a pregnant woman and her three children who died after a side wall fell on
them," he said.
"Around 1,000 homes" mostly made of mud and tin were flattened, government district
administrator Abul Kalam Azad said.
Storms known locally as Kalboishakhis often hit Bangladesh during the early months of
summer in the lead up the monsoon that generally begins in the first week of June.
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At least 10 killed as powerful tornadoes tear across southern US
PUBLISHED ON APR 28, 2014 1:41 PM
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Low level thunder storms supercells pass over the area of Bearden, Arkansas on April 24, 2014. -- FILE PHOTO:
REUTERS
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Powerful tornadoes tearing across the southern United States have
killed at least 10 people, emergency officials in the states of Arkansas and Oklahoma
reported late on Sunday.
The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management said there were eight storm-related
fatalities, while an official with the Oklahoma Emergency Management Agency said there
were at least two tornado victims in the state.
Local emergency crews were combing through the debris in some of the hardest-hit towns as
forecasters warned that more twisters were on their way.
"It's chaos right now," the mayor of the Arkansas town of Velonia, James Firestone, told
CNN. The downtown area "seems like it's completely levelled", he added. "There's a few
buildings partially standing, gas lines spewing. Fire lines down. We've had some casualties."
Mr Firestone said that the police and firefighters from nearby cities as well as National Guard
troops were heading to his town to help.
Pictures of tornado damage posted by Arkansas TV station THV 11 showed overturned cars,
homes ripped in half, and houses reduced to piles of debris.
The full impact of the storm and its toll will likely not be known until after sunrise.
In Oklahoma, a powerful twister struck the town of Quapaw.
"There have been numerous homes and buildings damaged and some destroyed," Keli Cain
of the Oklahoma Emergency Management Agency told AFP.
She cited local emergency officials as saying that a fire station was destroyed and there was
damage to the northern part of the town.
The National Weather Service warned of a severe weather threat, saying there was a "high
risk of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes" overnight across much of Arkansas.
"It's been a truly awful night for many families, neighborhoods and communities, but
Arkansans always step up to help each other recover," Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe wrote
on Twitter.
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Tornado system that killed 16 heads toward US Southeast
PUBLISHED ON APR 29, 2014 5:01 AM
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VILONIA (REUTERS) - A ferocious storm system threatened tens of millions of people
across the US Southeast on Monday, a day after it spawned a series of tornadoes that killed
16 people, injured more than 100 and tossed cars around like toys in Arkansas and Oklahoma.
Rescue workers, volunteers and victims have been sifting through the rubble in the hardesthit state of Arkansas, looking for survivors in central Faulkner County where a tornado
reduced homes to splinters, snapped power lines and mangled countless trees.
The National Weather Service said there was a tornado risk for Mississippi, Alabama and
western Georgia as the storm system that produced the twisters headed east toward the MidAtlantic states.
Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe said at least 14 people died in the state in the storm
authorities said produced the first fatalities of this year's US tornado season. He previously
told a news conference 16 had been killed but later said there was a mistake in calculation.
A home lies in ruins after a tornado yesterday tore through the area for the second time in three years, on April 28, 2014 in
Vilonia, Arkansas. -- PHOTO: AFP
Nine of the victims came from the same street in the town of Vilonia, with a population of
about 4,100. A new intermediate school set to open in August was heavily damaged by a
tractor trailer blown into its roof.
A steel farm shop anchored to concrete was erased from the landscape. "Everything is just
leveled to the ground," Vilonia resident Matt Rothacher said. "It cut a zig-zag right through
town."
The White House said President Barack Obama, who has been on a trip abroad, called Beebe
to receive an update on the damage and to offer his condolences.
Medical officials reported at least 100 people in Arkansas were injured. "It's so heartbreaking.
I've never seen destruction like this before," US Representative Tim Griffin told reporters
after touring Vilonia, which was previously hit by a tornado about three years ago. "I saw a
Dr. Seuss book in the rubble. I saw a Spider-Man shirt in the rubble. It just breaks your
heart."
The National Weather Service said the threat of tornadoes will last for several days as a
strong weather system interacts with a large area of instability across the central and southern
United States.
"This is a multiday event and today is the second day of significant tornado risk and
unfortunately, probably not the last," said Bill Bunting, operations chief at the National
Weather Service's Storm Predictions Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency for four counties where
tornadoes hit on Friday and warned that more rough weather was on the way.
More than 10,000 people were without power in Arkansas on Monday morning, officials said.
The Arkansas National Guard was deployed to sift through the wreckage. Beebe declared a
state of disaster for Faulkner and two other counties.
One person was killed in neighboring Oklahoma and another in Iowa, state authorities said.
A tornado in Baxter Springs, Kansas that touched down on Sunday evening destroyed as
many as 70 homes and 25 businesses and injured 34 people, of whom nine were hospitalised,
state and county officials said.
One person was killed in Kansas, likely due to the same storm system, officials said.
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