At least 18 people were killed in the southern and east-central US as tornadoes and severe storms destroyed homes and businesses, leaving hundreds of thousands of households without power, according to the latest estimates from local authorities, as the northeast braced for possible strong storms today .

Tornadoes hit the southern state of Arkansas yesterday, killing five people, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the Republican governor of the rural state, said at a press conference. Sanders declared a state of emergency in the area. “Central Arkansas sustained significant damage,” he tweeted.

In Tennessee, seven people died as a result of the intense weather that hit McNairy County, east of Memphis, state disaster management spokeswoman Maggie Hannan told AFP.

Pulaski County, which includes the Arkansas capital of Little Rock, was hit hard. The residents there woke up to a picture of destruction. The tornado tore off roofs and walls of buildings, scattered cars like toys, uprooted trees and knocked out part of the power grid.

“Many people have had to flee their homes and seek shelter,” Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott said.

Lara Farrar, a reporter for a local financial paper, told AFP by phone that she was in “absolute shock” seeing the devastation near her home in Little Rock. “In some buildings the roof has been completely blown off,” she said, describing images of damaged buildings, collapsed walls and uprooted trees.

The town of Wynn, in the northeastern part of the state, “was basically cut in half by the damage from east to west,” Mayor Jennifer Hobbs told CNN.

Mississippi disaster officials also reported one death and multiple injuries in Pontotoc County, about 200 miles south of Memphis.

An elderly man was also killed in Alabama when a tornado tore through his home, officials in Huntsville, near the Tennessee border, said.

North, in the small town of Belvidere, west of Chicago in the State of Illinois, due to a heavy storm part of the roof and facade of the Apollo Theater collapsed while a concert of a heavy metal band was taking place.

Authorities there reported one death and 28 injuries, including five in hospital with serious injuries.

Television footage showed injured spectators being carried away on stretchers and photos on social media showed a venue filled with a waist-high pile of debris and a hole in the roof.

In neighboring Indiana, three people died in a storm in Sullivan County, according to authorities.

More than 650,000 homes remained without power today in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia, according to US PowerOutage.

The National Weather Service has issued a warning for strong winds and severe thunderstorms that could hit the Northeast, including Ohio, this Saturday.

A week ago, a tornado swept through Mississippi, killing 25 people and causing massive property damage. President Joe Biden visited the area yesterday Friday.