Misty Drope noticed the silence just before a tornado tore through her family’s Arkansas home.
“There is a silence that happens before a strong storm hits you,” Drope told ABC’s “Good Morning America” in an interview on Monday. “And I said, ‘Oh no, this is not good.'”
She and her family, Bruce and Keely Drope, were standing outside what remained of their Paragould home. The tornado that ripped through town over the weekend was the second to hit the neighborhood in less than a year.
“You are so thankful you are alive,” Bruce Drope said.
Looking at a photo of their destroyed home, Keely Drope pointed out the corner of the house where she and her family sought refuge, noting that it was the only area of the house where the roof remained intact.
“In that photo, it literally looked like God just had his hand right there over us because that is the only part that has the roof left,” says Keely Drope.
Over the weekend, more than 970 severe storm reports were filed in more than two dozen states, killing at least 42 people. A three-day tornado outbreak swept through at least nine states.
Tornadoes struck Missouri, killing 12 people. Another eight people were killed in Kansas, and Mississippi reported six deaths due to the storm.
Severe weather, including tornadoes, killed four people in Texas, four in Oklahoma, three in Arkansas, and three in Alabama.
2 children killed
Two children, ages 11 and 13, died early Saturday in North Carolina when a storm-uprooted tree fell on their single-wide mobile home in Brevard, Transylvania County, according to authorities. According to Connestee Fire Rescue Chief Matthew C. Owen’s Facebook post, the tree fell on the bedroom of 11-year-old Joshua Leviskia and his 13-year-old brother, Josiah.
“When Connestee Fire Rescue firefighters arrived, they located a single-wide trailer with an approximately 3-foot-diameter uprooted tree through the center of the trailer,” Owen wrote in the reply. “The surviving members of this family indicated there were two children trapped in their bedroom.”
According to the agency, firefighters discovered the brothers’ bodies under a tree and other debris. The agency reported that five other people who lived in the house were not injured.
Owen told ABC News that a tornado rated EF-2 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale tore through Tylertown, Mississippi, with wind speeds reaching 111 mph. Officials reported at least three deaths.
The tornado ripped through Paradise Ranch RV Resort in Tylertown, destroying many of the cabins and leaving a mangled mess of tree branches and building materials. However, the campground’s manager told “GMA” that no deaths had occurred, in part because the majority of the cabins were empty.
The manager estimated that approximately 250 campers would arrive next week.
EF-3 tornado wreaks havoc in Alabama
The National Weather Service confirmed that an EF-3 tornado with winds ranging from 136 to 165 mph touched down in the small community of Plantersville, Alabama, about 41 miles northwest of Montgomery, destroying homes and mowing down pine trees or turning them into projectiles that penetrate roofs and walls.
Anita Ownes told ABC affiliate station WBMA in Birmingham that her mother died when a tornado destroyed her Plantersville home. Ownes stated that her mother’s body was discovered about 350 yards from her destroyed home.
She stated that her uncle, who lives in the same neighborhood as her mother, was hospitalized due to tornado-related injuries.
“To be honest, you would not think just wind and tornadoes could cause this much devastation,” a teary Ownes said as she surveyed the splintered wood, cracked cinderblocks, and twisted metal strewn across Plantersville.
When asked about her mother, Ownes responded, “I do not really know what to tell you right now about mom except that she loved everybody.”
School bus hurled into gym
In Winterboro, Alabama, about 60 miles southeast of Birmingham, an EF-2 tornado ripped through the community, destroying homes and causing damage to the high school. The twister, with winds of 120 mph, was powerful enough to lift a school bus and propel it into the Winterboro gymnasium.
The Talladega County Coroner identified the only person killed in the tornado that struck Winterboro as 83-year-old Harry Leon Fain, who lived in a mobile home across the street from Winterboro High School.
“Everyone knew him. In an interview with WBMA, Luther Lackey, second assistant chief of the Winterboro Volunteer Fire Department, described Fain as a “very nice fellow.” “He came to the fire station four hours early to make sure the storm shelters were open.”
According to Lackey, Fain told firefighters that he was going home but planned to return to one of the storm shelters.
“Four hours later, they had to search for him,” Lackey said.
Powerful winds also fueled wildfires that broke out over the weekend, destroying nearly 400 homes near Norman, Oklahoma, according to officials. According to the state’s chief medical examiner’s office, at least four people died as a result of the fires and heavy winds.
According to the Oklahoma State Department of Health, 142 injuries from wildfires were reported to state hospitals.
While the threat of more tornadoes has subsided in the Great Plains, the region’s fire danger remains high on Monday. Red Flag fire danger warnings have been issued for parts of Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. Officials predict that West Texas and New Mexico will experience extreme fire danger on Tuesday.