At Least 32 Dead in Severe US Storms

Violent tornadoes and high winds decimated homes, wiped out schools, and toppled semitractor-trailers as a monster storm that killed at least 32 people ripped its way across the central and southern US. Details, per the AP:

• Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves announced six people died in three counties, and three more people were missing late Saturday. One tornado struck the Tylertown area.
• Officials confirmed three deaths in Arkansas, where Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency.
• In Alabama, the storms damaged homes and roads.

• Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp also declared an emergency in anticipation of the storm's shift eastward. Early Sunday morning, the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency used its social media accounts to repost a National Weather Service tornado watch for parts of southeast Georgia.
• Dust storms spurred by the system's early high winds claimed almost a dozen lives on Friday. Eight people died in a Kansas highway pileup involving at least 50 vehicles, according to the state highway patrol. Authorities said three people also were killed in car crashes during a dust storm in Amarillo, in the Texas Panhandle.
• Evacuations were ordered in some Oklahoma communities as more than 130 fires were reported across the state and nearly 300 homes were damaged or destroyed. Gov. Kevin Stitt said at a Saturday news conference that some 266 square miles had burned, sharing that he lost a home of his own on a ranch northeast of Oklahoma City.
• To the north, the National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for parts of far western Minnesota and far eastern South Dakota starting early Saturday. Snow accumulations of 3 to 6 inches were expected, with up to a foot possible. Winds were expected to cause whiteout conditions.
• All told, the extreme weather conditions were forecast to impact an area that is home to more than 100 million people.

(More tornadoes stories.)