Severe thunderstorms and high winds on Saturday night left at least four people dead in Oklahoma, including an infant, injured residents and destroyed homes, the authorities said, as more than two dozen tornadoes were reported overnight.
A series of tornadoes ripped through parts of the state, striking particularly hard the cities of Sulphur, Holdenville and Ardmore, according to the Weather Service.
Keli Cain, the public affairs director for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management, said on Sunday that the state’s medical examiner confirmed three-storm related fatalities, two in Holdenville, and one on Interstate 34, near Marietta.
At a news conference on Sunday, Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma announced that a fourth person had died, in Sulphur. At least 100 other people were injured across the state, the department said on Sunday.
Shelters and emergency kitchens had opened to house and feed displaced residents, while local officials coordinated search-and-rescue efforts, the department said.
A man and an infant girl were those killed in Holdenville, the Hughes County Emergency Medical Service said on Sunday.
At least 16 homes in Oklahoma were destroyed, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said in a briefing Sunday morning.
On Sunday, Mr. Stitt issued a state of emergency for 12 counties and toured Sulphur.
He described the scene there as “just devastating,” adding that it seemed like every business in downtown had been destroyed.
He said that early reports suggest that a powerful tornado “was kind of blowing right through downtown here and I just haven’t see this much destruction from my time as governor.”
Video and photos from television station KOCO News showed businesses in downtown Sulphur damaged or leveled, and cars impaled by flying debris.
Julie Jack, 64, who owns a women’s boutique in Sulphur, said on Sunday that her business “is completely destroyed and all the contents in it are lost.”
She said that except for a new hotel in the downtown area where her store was, “I would have to say every downtown structure is a loss.”
“It looks like a bomb was set off,” she added.
The severe weather came a day after tornadoes tore through parts of Nebraska and Iowa and leveled dozens of homes.
In Iowa, 270 homes and multiple structures were damaged or destroyed in Pottawattamie County, and about 25 homes were damaged or destroyed in Shelby County, according to FEMA.
Nearly 1.9 million people in three states, including a large section of Texas, face an “enhanced” risk of severe weather on Sunday, with threats of wind damage, large hail and some tornadoes, according to the Storm Prediction Center.
Thunderstorms were expected to move east into the Mississippi Valley on Sunday, and heavy rains were forecast in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas, the National Weather Service said.
Nearly 30 tornadoes were reported across the region between Saturday afternoon and early Sunday, including some on Saturday night in Kansas, Missouri and Texas, according to the Weather Service.
Ryan Jewell, a forecaster at the Weather Prediction Center of the National Weather Service, said that the situation on Saturday was complicated because there were so many storms.
“They start interacting and there’s several pockets of potential,” he said.
Tornadoes hit Nebraska and Iowa on Friday.
Tornadoes on Friday struck several areas of Nebraska and Iowa, where at least nine people were injured as winds battered the region.
At a news conference on Saturday in Douglas County, Neb., where more than 150 homes were damaged, Chris Franks of the Weather Service described extensive damage from winds of up to 165 m.p.h.
“These are strong tornadoes, rare tornadoes,” he said, describing a system that started in the Lincoln area, and another tornado that formed over Eppley Airfield in Omaha.
The Weather Service said it had received more than 100 reports of tornadoes in at least five states in the Great Plains on Friday.
Gov. Jim Pillen of Nebraska said he visited several hard-hit areas, which he described as “extraordinarily sobering.”
Phil Enke, an elder at Harvest Alliance Church in Minden, Iowa, said that the place of worship was leveled in Friday’s storms. Mr. Enke, 65, walked over splintered wood and debris on Saturday afternoon, looking for documents and photographs that he could salvage.
“We were just trying to get stuff that can’t be replaced,” Mr. Enke said.
“It’s a hassle and a mess, but you just have to pick up the pieces and move on,” he added.
Johnny Diaz and Livia Albeck-Ripka contributed reporting.
