A series of tornadoes have caused extensive damage in the American Midwest since Friday. Flood and tornado warnings have been issued for both Oklahoma and several other states, including Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas.
In Oklahoma, a tornado swept through the small town of Holdenville, on the Texas border, 13 miles south of Oklahoma City. Two people, including a child, were killed and four were injured, according to Hughes County Emergency Services.
A third person died on Interstate 35 near the city of Marietta, emergency officials said.
Extensive damage
In Holdenville, many houses were crushed and traffic signs bent down to the ground. On Sunday, the sound of chainsaws testified that repairs were underway.
In the city of Sulphur, Oklahoma, which was also hit, pictures show that several buildings were left in ruins, and that roofs were torn off other houses.
33,000 households lost power in Oklahoma, and 52,000 across the border in Texas.
Cleanup underway
In several other states, residents were also digging through the piles of rubble on Sunday. On Saturday, buildings in an area south of Omaha, Nebraska were crushed as a tornado swept through miles of farmland and small towns and on into Iowa.
Every spring, tornadoes ravage the flat landscape of the Midwest and Southern states of the United States. But it is rare for two such powerful tornado systems to arrive almost at the same time.
In Nebraska and Iowa, 78 tornadoes were recorded on Friday, and a little further south, in Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri, there were 35 tornadoes on Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.
