Atlanta : At least 14 people were killed in Arkansas and Missouri as a series of tornadoes hit the U.S. Midwest and Southeast overnight, raking a path of destruction that was still being assessed on Saturday, police said.
Twenty-six tornadoes were reported but not confirmed to have touched down late on Friday night and early on 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.
As the storms regain strength, forecasters said the highest possible risk of tornadoes and severe thunderstorms is on Saturday night. By Saturday afternoon, parts of Mississippi and Alabama were issued a level 5 tornado alert, the NWS’s highest level.
