At least eleven dead in violent storms in Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma

At least eleven people were killed when severe storms caused devastating damage in the central US states of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

Seven deaths were reported in Cooke County, Texas, near the Oklahoma border, where a tornado swept through a rural area near a mobile home park Saturday night, officials said.

Storms also caused damage in Oklahoma. Guests at an outdoor wedding were injured. Tens of thousands of residents throughout the region were without power.

“All that’s left is a trail of rubble. The devastation is pretty bad,” said Cooke County Sheriff Ray Sappington.

Among the dead were two children, ages two and five, the sheriff said.

Three family members in Texas were found dead in a home near the small community of Valley View, Sheriff Sappington said.

Hugo Parra, who lives in Farmers Branch, north of Dallas, said he rode out the storm in a gas station bathroom with about 40 to 50 people.

“A fireman came to check on us and said, ‘You were very lucky,'” Mr. Parra told the Associated Press. “The best way to describe it is that the wind was trying to blow us out of the bathrooms.”

Several people were taken by ambulance and helicopter to hospitals in Denton County, Texas, also north of Dallas. However, officials did not initially know the exact extent of their injuries.

In Arkansas, at least two people were reportedly killed, including a 26-year-old woman who was found dead outside a destroyed home in Olvey, a small community in Boone County, according to Daniel Bolen of the county’s emergency management office.

The destruction continued a grim month of deadly storms across the central United States.

At least five people were killed and dozens injured in the tornadoes in Iowa this week.

The deadly hurricanes occurred during a tornado season around the world, at a time when climate change is increasing the severity of storms around the world.

April saw the second-highest number of tornadoes in the country since records began.