International Dozens of relentless tornadoes and storms cause 11 deaths in the United States

Dozens of relentless tornadoes tore through parts of the southern and north-central United States, killing at least 11 people, destroying homes, schools and businesses and collapsing the roof of an auditorium during a heavy metal concert in Illinois

International Dozens of relentless tornadoes and storms cause 11 deaths in the United States

Dozens of relentless tornadoes tore through parts of the southern and north-central United States, killing at least 11 people, destroying homes, schools and businesses and collapsing the roof of an auditorium during a heavy metal concert in Illinois.

The meteors struck overnight in at least seven states, leveling homes and businesses and tearing branches and bark from trees. Emergency crews across the region were counting the dead and assessing damage from tornadoes that were part of a sprawling storm system that also sparked wildfires in the southern Great Plains and blizzards in the north.

Tens of thousands of residents were without power as the storms affected a wide swath of the country where some 85 million people live.

The dead included four in the small northeast Arkansas town of Wynne, Cross County Coroner Eli Long said. Other deaths were reported in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi and the Little Rock area.

Buildings collapsed and roads were littered with debris in Wynne, a community of about 8,000 about 50 miles west of Memphis, Tennessee. Crews sawed downed trees to clear roads Saturday morning.

"I'm panicking trying to get home, but we can't go home," Wynne Councilwoman Lisa Powell Carter said Friday night. "Wynne is so broken... There are demolished houses, fallen trees in the streets."

In Belvidere, Illinois, the roof of the Apollo Theater collapsed during a tornado, killing one person and injuring 28, five seriously. The crash occurred during a heavy metal concert in this town about 70 miles (110 kilometers) northwest of Chicago.

The storms also killed three people in Sullivan County, Indiana, emergency department director Jim Pirtle said in an email. Some residents were missing in the county seat of Sullivan, near the state line with Illinois, about 150 kilometers southwest of Indianapolis.

"Homes in both the city and county are severely damaged and some are completely leveled," Sullivan County Sheriff Jason Bobbitt posted on social media. "Our worst fears were realized earlier when we learned that several members of our community had lost their lives."

Gas leaks were reported in the area and the sheriff's office ordered people to stay in open areas to make way for emergency services and utility workers.

In the Little Rock area, at least one person was killed and more than twenty were injured, some of them seriously, authorities reported.

The tornado in Little Rock first passed through neighborhoods in the western part of the Arkansas capital city, disrupting a small shopping center that included a Kroger supermarket. It then crossed the Arkansas River toward North Little Rock and surrounding cities, where widespread damage to homes, businesses, and vehicles was reported.

Little Rock resident Niki Scott took refuge in a bathroom after her husband called to warn her of a tornado. She could hear glass breaking and when she got out she discovered that her house was one of the few on her street that didn't have a tree on top of it.

A suspected tornado also killed a woman in Madison County, Alabama, while destroying multiple buildings, County Sheriff Mac McCutcheon said.

In Pontotoc County, in northern Mississippi, authorities confirmed one death and four injuries.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project