Tornado Rips Little Rock Area, Central US Braces for More Storms

A tornado ripped across suburban Little Rock, Arkansas, as a massive weather system battered the central US with thunderstorms, hail and blizzards.

(Bloomberg) — A tornado ripped across suburban Little Rock, Arkansas, as a massive weather system battered the central US with thunderstorms, hail and blizzards.

More than 69,456 customers were without power in Arkansas and another 45,000 were out in Texas and Oklahoma as the storms rumbled through, according to PowerOutage.us. Tornado watches stretched from Dallas to Chicago and forecasters warned residents in places such as Peoria, Illinois, to take cover, the National Weather Service said.

The tornadoes erupted from a broader weather system that deluged California with flooding rains earlier this week. As it traverse from west to east, it’s colliding with warm, moist air coming out of the Gulf of Mexico that’s fueling the severe weather, said Zack Taylor, a senior branch forecaster at the US Weather Prediction Center. Since 1980, severe storms have killed 1,982 people and cause an average of $8.9 billion in annual damage and losses, according to the US National Centers for Environmental Information.

In addition to power outages, almost 500 flights have been canceled around the US, with the majority of them in Chicago, according to FlightAware. Meanwhile, blizzard warnings were issued across South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Severe thunderstorms are expected on Saturday from New Jersey to Maine, including New York City, according to the US Storm Prediction Center.

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