Tornadoes rip through Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma, killing 13

Tornadoes swept through three states in the United States, destroying homes within minutes, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power, and killing at least 13 people.

Four people have died in Arkansas, two in Oklahoma and seven in north Texas. Dozens of people were also injured, and nearly 500,000 people in many states were without power.

Cook County Sheriff Ray Sappington said the deaths included two children aged 2 and 5 and three members of the same family.

Video from the county showed a gas station almost completely destroyed, with twisted metal strewn across damaged vehicles.

“This is just a trail of debris left behind,” the sheriff told US media. “Sadly, we think that number could go up. The damage is quite severe.”

The tornado overturned trucks, closed a highway near Dallas and left tens of thousands without power across the region.

Meanwhile, lightning, thunder and heavy rain delayed the start of the Indianapolis 500 by several hours, with 125,000 fans evacuated and told to seek shelter.

Frank Soltysiak, who lives in a mobile home park in North Texas, said his home was destroyed within minutes of the storm passing through.

Mr Soltisiak was at a nearby restaurant when the owner drove by and “honked his horn to tell everyone to get out,” he told BBC America partner CBS News.

He grabbed his dog, Sampson, and hid in the restaurant’s walk-in refrigerator.

“That was the safest building you could go to. When I came out, everything was destroyed,” he said.

“Within two minutes, it was all gone.”

The Texas storm overlapped with record-breaking heat in parts of the state, with residents receiving warnings for triple-digit temperatures over the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

Two people were killed and six injured in Mayes County, Oklahoma, local emergency management told the BBC.

Arkansas officials said a 26-year-old woman was found dead outside a destroyed home in Alvey, the other of four deaths reported in the state in Benton County. The state also reported multiple injuries.

Police officials in Rogers, Arkansas, said they had rescued several people who were trapped when the tornado downed trees and power lines and natural gas supply lines.

By Sunday afternoon, the storm had begun moving eastward, according to the National Weather Service, which warned of the possibility of strong winds and hail along the way.

About 470,000 people were without power from Texas to Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky, according to the website Poweroutage.us.

The latest tornado comes after another powerful tornado ripped through a rural Iowa town in early May and killed four people.

Government forecasters also described this summer as “extraordinary” for the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, which could begin next month.