At least three people died, dozens of homes were damaged after strong storms battered the U.S. Midwest and South on Sunday.
The National Weather Service said multiple tornadoes and severe storms were reported on Sunday in central Indiana and Arkansas.
Emergency officials from Martin County, Indiana, confirmed one death in the area. Emergency Management Director Cameron Wolf said the victim's injured partner was airlifted to hospital. They lived in a two-story log cabin, which was destroyed by the storms. Further details were not immediately available.
"Damage is random, it's kind of widespread," Wolf said in an interview with PBS. The damage mostly happened out in the countryside, he said, adding that towns were not hit that hard by the storms.
The Lonoke County Sheriff's Office confirmed that two people were killed after a tree fell on a home in Carlisle, Arkansas, due to severe storms on Sunday, a CBS News affiliate said.
Images and footage from local media showed fallen trees had blocked roads and homes were damaged. A large hail storm was also reported in Indiana and adjacent states, officials said.
Michael Pruitt, deputy fire chief of Bargersville, Indiana, a search and rescue operation did not find any deaths or injuries after the fire department responded to a 4:15 p.m. report of a structure collapse resulting from the Johnson County tornado, which he said was on the ground for about 15 minutes.
Bargersville Fire Chief Erik Funkhouser said in a news conference Sunday that at least 75 homes suffered moderate to severe damage in a 3-mile (4.8-kilometer) area as the tornado crossed Indiana State Road 135 in the vicinity of Interstate 69.
“Obviously, this is a very dangerous scene for the area," Funkhouser said. “We have power lines that are down all throughout that 3-mile area.”
Pruitt said affected homes could be without electricity for days.
Jessyca Copas, her wife and father-in-law watched the funnel cloud as it moved behind a home across the street, the Indianapolis Star reported.
“It was starting to come back down, and there was like a buzzard caught in it,” Copas said. “I was like, ‘That bird’s not getting out.’”
A tree would fall into their home where Copas said the family, including her 20-month-old daughter, hunkered down in a bathroom for safety.
Kimber Olson, 42, told her 8-year-old son to sit in the bathtub while she stood outside and filmed what looked like two cyclones circling toward her apartment in Bargersville
“The sound is deafening,” Olson said. “You’ll never forget the sound. Your ears pop in such a strange way. You get a ring in your ear.”
After the tornado got closer, she went inside, closed all the doors and jumped in the bathtub with her son. She said she heard glass explode as her window shattered.
“Every storm I’m going to be terrified,” she said. “I’m going to be watching — very, very vigilant.”
Survey teams were set to visit Martin, Johnson, Daviess and Monroe counties on Monday to assess damage from Sunday's severe storms and tornadoes, according to the National Weather Service office in Indianapolis.
Sheriff’s officials say two people were killed and a third was injured Sunday night in the central Arkansas community of Carlisle when a tree fell onto a home, reported.
In Memphis, Tennessee, a utility company reported about 120,000 homes and business were left without power Sunday as storms carrying strong winds knocked down trees and caused other damage.
Detroit-based DTE Energy reported Monday that about 75,700 of its customers in southeastern Michigan were without power. Jackson, Michigan-based Consumers Energy also reported outages in southwestern Michigan.
Michigan Indiana Power reported Sunday evening that about 4,000 of its customers in southwestern Michigan and northern Indiana lost electricity due to the storms. More than 2,000 outages were reported in Benton Harbor, Michigan.
