Houston- At least one person was killed and over two dozens were injured when tornados hit large areas of south central US states Texas and Oklahoma, authorities said.
The stormy weather which on Monday, acquired its destructive path on Tuesday moving into Louisiana and Mississippi.
A 73-year-old woman was killed in Sherwood Shores, Grayson County, in northern Texas, Sarah Somers, Xinhua news agency reported citing the county’s emergency management director, on Tuesday.
Somers said 10 more people were transported to local hospitals with injuries. Initial reports said dozens of homes were damaged or destroyed in the area which is just south of Kingston, Marshall County of Oklahoma, on the Texas side of Lake Texoma.
Many homes and structures including a Dollar General store in Kingston was also damaged, reported local media.
Marshall County emergency management said on Monday night there were no known fatalities, but several people have been taken to local hospitals with injuries.
The storm knocked out power in the area, said the reports.
The first tornado touched down around 4 p.m. local time (2100 GMT) on Monday in Jacksboro, a city of some 5,000 people in northern Texas, causing damage to an elementary school, a high school, an animal shelter and 60 to 80 homes. The storm left behind a two-mile (3.2 km) wide debris field, said city officials.
No students at either Jacksboro school were hurt. Four residents there were injured and rescued from a damaged home, though none of them seriously hurt.
The city of Elgin, east of the state’s capital Austin, also saw significant damage and some injuries, authorities said.
Another tornado was reported in the city of Round Rock, an Austin suburb, with debris in roadways and structural damage to multiple homes and businesses being sighted along the path of tornados.
The Weather Channel reported on Monday that an outbreak of severe weather would continue through midweek, and that tornadoes, damaging winds, large hail and flooding rain are all threats.
An area from central and eastern Texas to western Louisiana and southwest Arkansas has the highest potential for severe weather through Monday night, said the report.
The report said a multiday severe thunderstorm threat is a classic setup for spring, with a potent jet stream disturbance spreading into increasingly humid air over the southern US, which will give rise to widespread rain and thunderstorms across the area.
–IANS