Oklahoma towns hard hit by tornadoes begin clean-up after four killed in storms

Small towns in Oklahoma have begun a long clean-up after tornadoes flattened homes and buildings and killed four people, widening a destructive outbreak of severe weather across the middle of the US.

Punishing storms that began late Saturday in Oklahoma injured at least 100 people, damaged a rural hospital, washed out roads and knocked out power to more than 40,000 customers at one point, state officials said.

Tornadoes on Friday in Iowa and Nebraska also caused wide destruction and were blamed for one death.

The destruction was extensive in Sulphur, a town of about 5,000 people south of Oklahoma City, where a tornado crumpled many downtown buildings, tossed cars and buses and damaged roofs on houses across a 15-block radius.

“You just can’t believe the destruction,” Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt said during a visit to the hard-hit town. “It seems like every business downtown has been destroyed.”

Mr Stitt said about 30 people were injured in Sulphur, including some who were in a bar as the tornado struck.

Hospitals across the state reported about 100 injuries, including people apparently cut or struck by debris, according to the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.

An infant was among those killed, Hughes County Emergency Management director Mike Dockrey told Oklahoma television station KOCO.

White House officials said President Joe Biden spoke to Mr Stitt on Sunday and offered the full support of the federal government.

The deadly weather in Oklahoma added to the dozens of reported tornadoes that have wreaked havoc in the nation’s mid-section since Friday.

Another death was reported on Sunday in Iowa, where officials in Pottawattamie County said a man critically injured during a tornado on Friday had died.

In Oklahoma, authorities said the tornado in Sulphur began in a city park before barrelling through the downtown area, flipping cars and ripping the roofs and walls off brick buildings. Windows and doors were blown out of structures that remained standing.

“How do you rebuild it? This is complete devastation,” said Kelly Trussell, a lifelong Sulphur resident as she surveyed the damage. “It is crazy, you want to help but where do you start?”

Carolyn Goodman travelled to Sulphur from the nearby town of Ada in search of her former sister-in-law, who Ms Goodman said was at a local bar just before the tornado hit the area. Mr Stitt said one of the victims was found inside a bar but authorities had not yet identified those killed.

“The bar was destroyed,” Ms Goodman said. “I know they probably won’t find her alive … but I hope she is still alive.”

Further north, a tornado near the town of Holdenville killed two people and damaged or destroyed more than a dozen homes, according to the Hughes County Emergency Medical Service. Another person was killed along Interstate 35 near the southern Oklahoma city of Marietta, state officials said.

Heavy rains that swept into Oklahoma with the tornadoes also caused dangerous flooding.

Mr Stitt issued an executive order on Sunday declaring a state of emergency in 12 counties due to the fallout from the severe weather.

At the Sulphur High School gym, where families took cover from the storm, Jackalyn Wright said she and her family heard what sounded like a helicopter as the tornado touched down over them.

Chad Smith, 43, said people ran into the gym as the wind picked up. The rain started coming faster and the doors slammed shut.

Residents in other states were also digging out from storm damage. A tornado in suburban Omaha, Nebraska, demolished homes and businesses on Saturday as it moved for miles through farmland and into subdivisions, then slammed into an Iowa town.

The tornado damage began on Friday afternoon near Lincoln, Nebraska. An industrial building in Lancaster County was hit, causing it to collapse with 70 people inside. Several were trapped, but everyone was evacuated, and the three injuries were not life-threatening, authorities said.