Several massive tornadoes churned above Oklahoma on Monday, May 9 killing at least two people, with hail as big as grapefruit hitting the U.S. state, the authorities and USA media said.
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In southern Nebraska, the National Weather Service said a tornado caused some damage to a rural high school.
Footage of a small twister showed it barrelling its way through a sparsely populated rural area, bringing hail stones the size of tennis balls.
This tornado was one of several resulting from the storm system that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Prediction Center warned would spin off more tornadoes from eastern Oklahoma to central Arkansas, with wind speeds of over 100 miles per hour.
The National Weather Service will be busy surveying the damage Tuesday.
The severe weather is expected to settle in the OH and Tennessee valleys.
Elsewhere, police in Johnston County said a man died near the town of Connerville.
A strong tornado touched ground south of Oklahoma City, but it was not clear if this was the same tornado that killed the man, according to the news organization.
Emergency services said the twister hit the town of Wynnewood as a number of violent storms raked the Southern Plains and the Ozark mountains.
Dana Lance, who was driving through Roff on her way home from work, took shelter after the tornado sirens sounded on Monday. The Storm Prediction Center said 23 tornadoes were reported across five states. “There were kids and elderly people, dogs and cats, babies”.
A truck drives as a supercell storm system baring multiple tornado warnings expands across the sky near Hugo, Oklahoma on May 09, 2016.
Debris flies through the air as a tornado rips through a residential area south of Wynnewood, Oklahoma.
He said the man suffered cuts and bruises, but his home was destroyed. Similar hail was forecast from eastern Texas to southeastern Kansas.
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About 41 million people from Houston to Sioux City, Iowa, were at risk for some type of stormy weather over the next few days.
