Storms kill at least 18 in several US states

Powerful storms killed at least 18 people, injured hundreds and left a wide trail of destruction across Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas after obliterating homes and destroying a truck stop where dozens sought shelter in a restroom during the latest deadly weather to strike the central U.S., the Associated Press reports.

Seven deaths were reported in Cooke County, Texas, near the Oklahoma border, where a tornado Saturday night plowed through a rural area near a mobile home park, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said at a news conference Sunday. About 100 people were injured and more than 200 homes and structures destroyed, Abbott said.

Eight people died statewide in Arkansas, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed in a news conference Sunday evening. In Oklahoma, two people died in Mayes County, east of Tulsa, officials said. In Kentucky, a man was killed Sunday in Louisville when a tree fell on him, police said.

The storms overturned cars and collapsed garages, ripped the roofs off homes and blew out windows.

The severe weather knocked out power for tens of thousands of homes and businesses in the path of the storms.

According to specialists, climate change contributes to the severity of storms around the world. April had the second-highest number of tornadoes on record in the country, AP adds. Harold Brooks, a senior scientist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, said a persistent pattern of warm, moist air is to blame for the string of tornadoes over the past two months.