VALLEY VIEW, Texas: Powerful storms killed at least 18 people, injured hundreds and left a wide trail of destruction across Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas after obliterating homes and destroying a truck stop where dozens sought shelter during the latest deadly weather to strike the central US
The storms inflicted their worst damage in a region spanning from north of Dallas to the northwest corner of Arkansas, and the system threatened to bring more violent weather to other parts of the Midwest. By Monday, forecasters said, the greatest risk would shift to the east, covering a broad swath of the country from Alabama to near New York City.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency early Monday in a post on social media platform X, citing “multiple reports of wind damage and tornadoes.”
Seven deaths were reported in Cooke County, Texas, near the Oklahoma border, where a tornado Saturday night plowed through a rural area near a mobile home park, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said at a news conference Sunday. The dead included two children, ages 2 and 5. Three family members were found dead in one home, according to the county sheriff.
Storms also killed two people and destroyed houses in Oklahoma, where the injured included guests at an outdoor wedding, eight people in Arkansas and one person in Kentucky. Tens of thousands of residents were without power across the region.
In Texas, about 100 people were injured and more than 200 homes and structures destroyed, Abbott said, sitting in front of a ravaged truck stop near the small agricultural community of Valley View. The area was among the hardest hit, with winds reaching an estimated 135 mph (217 kph), officials said.
“The hopes and dreams of Texas families and small businesses have literally been crushed by storm after storm,” said Abbott, whose state has seen successive bouts of severe weather, including storms that killed eight people in Houston earlier this month.
Abbot signed an amended severe weather disaster declaration on Sunday to include Denton, Montague, Cooke and Collin on a list of counties already under a disaster declaration sparked by storms and flooding in late April.
Hugo Parra, who lives in Farmers Branch, north of Dallas, said he rode out the storm with 40 to 50 people in the bathroom of the truck stop. The storm sheared the roof and walls off the building, mangling metal beams and leaving battered cars in the parking lot.
“A firefighter came to check on us and he said, ‘You’re very lucky,’” Parra said. “The best way to describe this is the wind tried to rip us out of the bathrooms.”
Multiple people were transported to hospitals by ambulance and helicopter in Denton County, also north of Dallas.
No more deaths are expected and nobody was reported missing in Texas, Abbott said, though responders were doing one more round of searches just in case.
Eight people died statewide in Arkansas, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed in a news conference Sunday evening. An emergency official said two of the deaths were attributed to the circumstances of the storm but not directly caused by weather, including a person who suffered a heart attack and another who was deprived of oxygen due to a loss of electricity.
The deaths included a 26-year-old woman who was found dead outside a destroyed home in Olvey, a small community in Boone County, according to Daniel Bolen of the county’s emergency management office. One person died in Benton County, and two more bodies were found in Marion County, officials said.
In Oklahoma, two people died in Mayes County, east of Tulsa, officials said.
In Kentucky, a man was killed Sunday in Louisville when a tree fell on him, police said. Louisville Mayor Craig Greenburg confirmed on social media it was a storm-related death.
A deadly series of storms
The destruction continued a grim month of deadly severe weather in the nation’s midsection.
Tornadoes in Iowa last week left at least five people dead and dozens injured. The deadly twisters have spawned during a historically bad season for tornadoes, at a time when climate change contributes to the severity of storms around the world. April had the second-highest number of tornadoes on record in the country.
Meteorologists and authorities issued urgent warnings to seek cover as the storms marched across the region late Saturday and into Sunday. “If you are in the path of this storm take cover now!” the National Weather Service office in Norman, Oklahoma, posted on X.
Harold Brooks, a senior scientist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, said a persistent pattern of warm, moist air is to blame for the string of tornadoes over the past two months.
Homes destroyed, roads blocked
Residents awoke Sunday to overturned cars and collapsed garages. Some residents could be seen pacing and assessing the damage. Nearby, neighbors sat on the foundation of a wrecked home.
In Valley View, near the truck stop, the storms ripped the roofs off homes and blew out windows. Clothing, insulation, bits of plastic and other pieces of debris were wrapped around miles of barbed wire fence line surrounding grazing land in the rural area.
Kevin Dorantes, 20, was in nearby Carrollton when he learned the tornado was bearing down on the Valley View neighborhood where he lived with his father and brother. He called the two of them and told them to take cover in the windowless bathroom, where they rode out the storm and survived unharmed.
As Dorantes wandered through the neighborhood of downed power lines and devastated houses, he came upon a family whose home was reduced to a pile of splintered rubble. A father and son were trapped under debris and friends and neighbors raced to get them out, Dorantes said.
“They were conscious but severely injured,” Dorantes said.
Widespread power outages
The severe weather knocked out power for tens of thousands of homes and businesses in the path of the storms.
On Monday, more than 187,000 customers were without power in Kentucky, according to the tracking website poweroutage.us. Some 84,000 customers were without power in Alabama; 74,000, West Virginia; 70,000, Missouri; and 63,000, Arkansas.
Inaccessible roads and downed power lines in Oklahoma also led officials in the town of Claremore, near Tulsa, to announce on social media that the city was “shut down” due to the damage.
More severe weather forecast
The system causing the latest severe weather was expected to move east over the rest of the holiday weekend.
The Indianapolis 500 started four hours late after a strong storm pushed into the area, forcing Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials to evacuate about 125,000 race fans.
More severe storms were predicted in Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee.
The risk of severe weather moves into North Carolina and Virginia on Monday, forecasters said.
To follow the progress of the storm system, see The Associated Press Tornado Tracker.
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Latest deadly weather in US kills at least 18 as storms carve path of ruin across multiple states
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Latest deadly weather in US kills at least 18 as storms carve path of ruin across multiple states
- The storms inflicted their worst damage in a region spanning from north of Dallas to the northwest corner of Arkansas
- In Texas, about 100 people were injured and more than 200 homes and structures destroyed
Trump endorses Japan’s ‘Iron Lady’ Takaichi ahead of Sunday election
TOKYO: US President Donald Trump gave his “total endorsement” of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi ahead of a national election in Japan on Sunday, adding he looked forward to hosting her at the White House next month.
Japan’s first female premier, a conservative who said she draws inspiration from Britain’s “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher, was already expected to deliver a solid win for her ruling coalition, according to opinion polls. She is seeking a public mandate for spending plans that have rattled investors, and a defense build-up that could further strain relations with China.
Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party and its partner, the Japan Innovation Party, known as Ishin, could capture around 300 seats in the 465-seat lower house of parliament, the polls show, well up from the razor-thin majority they now control.
TRUMP’S BACKING A TAILWIND FOR TAKAICHI
“Prime Minister Takaichi is someone who deserves powerful recognition for the job she and her Coalition are doing,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Thursday.
“It is my Honor to give a Complete and Total Endorsement of her, and what her highly respected Coalition is representing.”
Unlike his predecessors, Trump has increasingly sought to shape foreign elections. Analysts say his backing of Takaichi, 64, a nationalist and defense hawk, fits a growing pattern of aligning with right-wing leaders abroad.
On Thursday, he endorsed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for a vote there in April and last year backed Argentine President Javier Milei, highlighting US financial support as a factor in Milei’s 2025 legislative success.
Even though Takaichi already appears poised for a commanding victory, Trump’s endorsement will resonate in Japan, Asuka Tatebayashi, a geopolitical analyst at Mizuho Bank said.
“From the perspective of the business community, improved relations and better recognition by Trump will be seen as a positive,” Tatebayashi said. “And even among the general population, Trump is surprisingly popular in Japan compared to some western countries.”
Japanese government spokesman Kei Sato declined to comment on Trump’s endorsement but confirmed that Trump had invited Takaichi to visit Washington on March 19.
“Amid a rapidly changing international situation, the visit is expected to provide an opportunity to reaffirm the unwavering bonds of the Japan–US alliance,” Sato told a regular press conference.
One of Takaichi’s first engagements after she was elevated to prime minister in October was to host Trump in Tokyo.
She gave him a putter used by his former golfing buddy, the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Lauded by Trump for breaking Japan’s glass ceiling, Takaichi pledged billions of dollars in investments in a meeting analysts said helped underline the strength of the Japan-US alliance.
CHALLENGES WITH CHINA, JITTERY MARKETS
Weeks later, however, she touched off the biggest diplomatic dispute with China in over a decade by publicly outlining how Tokyo might respond to a Chinese attack on Taiwan.
Trump, who is seeking to maintain a fragile trade truce with China, asked Takaichi in a private phone call in November not to further aggravate Beijing, sources told Reuters.
A resounding victory could hand Takaichi new clout in the dispute with China, current and former Japanese officials said, though Beijing has shown no signs of backing down.
Takaichi’s plans to strengthen Japan’s defenses will likely also draw more anger from Beijing, which has cast her endeavours as an attempt to revive Japan’s past militarism.
While the row with China is starting to weigh on the world’s fourth-largest economy, it has hardly dented Takaichi’s high approval ratings. She has even become an unlikely idol for some voters, who have been buying up the bag she carries and the pink pen she scribbles with in parliament.
Markets, however, have been less enamoured with Takaichi lately. Her election promise to help households cope with rising prices by suspending the sales tax on food has shaken investor confidence in an economy with the heaviest debt burden in the world.
In recent weeks, investors have fled Japanese government bonds and sent the yen into crisis mode on concerns about how Tokyo would pay for the estimated 5 trillion yen ($30 billion) hit to annual revenue.
However, with other parties touting deeper tax cuts and broader spending, a comprehensive victory for the LDP, which has ruled Japan for most of the postwar era, could end up being the least-worst option for financial markets, analysts have said.
The outcome on Sunday may be affected by turnout among young supporters, who have supported Takaichi in large numbers but who tend to vote less than older cohorts. Record snowfall in some parts of Japan could also crimp turnout.
If the polls have it all wrong, and Takaichi loses her majority, she has said she will resign.
Japan’s first female premier, a conservative who said she draws inspiration from Britain’s “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher, was already expected to deliver a solid win for her ruling coalition, according to opinion polls. She is seeking a public mandate for spending plans that have rattled investors, and a defense build-up that could further strain relations with China.
Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party and its partner, the Japan Innovation Party, known as Ishin, could capture around 300 seats in the 465-seat lower house of parliament, the polls show, well up from the razor-thin majority they now control.
TRUMP’S BACKING A TAILWIND FOR TAKAICHI
“Prime Minister Takaichi is someone who deserves powerful recognition for the job she and her Coalition are doing,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Thursday.
“It is my Honor to give a Complete and Total Endorsement of her, and what her highly respected Coalition is representing.”
Unlike his predecessors, Trump has increasingly sought to shape foreign elections. Analysts say his backing of Takaichi, 64, a nationalist and defense hawk, fits a growing pattern of aligning with right-wing leaders abroad.
On Thursday, he endorsed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for a vote there in April and last year backed Argentine President Javier Milei, highlighting US financial support as a factor in Milei’s 2025 legislative success.
Even though Takaichi already appears poised for a commanding victory, Trump’s endorsement will resonate in Japan, Asuka Tatebayashi, a geopolitical analyst at Mizuho Bank said.
“From the perspective of the business community, improved relations and better recognition by Trump will be seen as a positive,” Tatebayashi said. “And even among the general population, Trump is surprisingly popular in Japan compared to some western countries.”
Japanese government spokesman Kei Sato declined to comment on Trump’s endorsement but confirmed that Trump had invited Takaichi to visit Washington on March 19.
“Amid a rapidly changing international situation, the visit is expected to provide an opportunity to reaffirm the unwavering bonds of the Japan–US alliance,” Sato told a regular press conference.
One of Takaichi’s first engagements after she was elevated to prime minister in October was to host Trump in Tokyo.
She gave him a putter used by his former golfing buddy, the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Lauded by Trump for breaking Japan’s glass ceiling, Takaichi pledged billions of dollars in investments in a meeting analysts said helped underline the strength of the Japan-US alliance.
CHALLENGES WITH CHINA, JITTERY MARKETS
Weeks later, however, she touched off the biggest diplomatic dispute with China in over a decade by publicly outlining how Tokyo might respond to a Chinese attack on Taiwan.
Trump, who is seeking to maintain a fragile trade truce with China, asked Takaichi in a private phone call in November not to further aggravate Beijing, sources told Reuters.
A resounding victory could hand Takaichi new clout in the dispute with China, current and former Japanese officials said, though Beijing has shown no signs of backing down.
Takaichi’s plans to strengthen Japan’s defenses will likely also draw more anger from Beijing, which has cast her endeavours as an attempt to revive Japan’s past militarism.
While the row with China is starting to weigh on the world’s fourth-largest economy, it has hardly dented Takaichi’s high approval ratings. She has even become an unlikely idol for some voters, who have been buying up the bag she carries and the pink pen she scribbles with in parliament.
Markets, however, have been less enamoured with Takaichi lately. Her election promise to help households cope with rising prices by suspending the sales tax on food has shaken investor confidence in an economy with the heaviest debt burden in the world.
In recent weeks, investors have fled Japanese government bonds and sent the yen into crisis mode on concerns about how Tokyo would pay for the estimated 5 trillion yen ($30 billion) hit to annual revenue.
However, with other parties touting deeper tax cuts and broader spending, a comprehensive victory for the LDP, which has ruled Japan for most of the postwar era, could end up being the least-worst option for financial markets, analysts have said.
The outcome on Sunday may be affected by turnout among young supporters, who have supported Takaichi in large numbers but who tend to vote less than older cohorts. Record snowfall in some parts of Japan could also crimp turnout.
If the polls have it all wrong, and Takaichi loses her majority, she has said she will resign.
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