Severe weekend weather across the U.S. leaves 22 dead
May 28, 2024, 7:41 AM | Updated: 11:34 am
Vehicles are tangled in the debris of a collapsed body shop on May 26 after a tornado rolled through Valley View, Texas. Mandatory Credit: Julio Cortez/AP via CNN Newsource
SALT LAKE CITY — Severe weather hit central and southern U.S. killing at least 22 people over the holiday weekend according to the Associated Press. Deaths were reported in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kentucky.
As of Friday morning, the Storm Prediction Center has a severe thunderstorm watch for eastern Texas. Weekend storms included tornadoes, extreme hail, and extreme wind.
An excerpt of the first minutes of the interview follows. It has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Tim Hughes: Let’s go in-depth on that deadly holiday weekend. From the plains to the East Coast, strong storms generated at least 72 tornadoes Nationwide.
Amanda Dickson: ABC’s Jim Ryan joins us live from Texas.
Jim Ryan: [It] goes on and on Amanda. It’s not just the Memorial Day weekend. It’s really been this whole month. In fact, this has been the most active Springtime weather season in 13 years. The most violent as well, considering the many who have died in these storms. And right now another storm of moved into Dallas-Fort Worth and is creating problems. Something like 800,000 homes and businesses right here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area [are] without electricity. And a lingering threat of tornadoes again in East Texas. So, yeah, it’s not over yet. And the tornado that struck Valley View on Saturday, this tornado just north of Dallas-Fort Worth killed seven people. [It was] the deadliest in this area in the entire state, in fact, since 2015.
Hughes: I’m curious what the general mood of people in the areas where you … happen to be today.
Ryan: Well, it’s concern[ing] certainly that this keeps happening over and over again. And … if the storm the size of an EF2 tornado, the type that took out Valley View and killed seven people on Saturday had struck in Downtown Dallas or in downtown Fort Worth in the middle of the business day, it could have been horrific. So I think people are feeling cautious and they’re also feeling kind of lucky that it hasn’t struck. The storm … that killed 10 people nine years ago was pretty much in Downtown Dallas or very close to downtown Dallas. So we’ve been lucky in that way.
