(Washington) Huge dark whirlwinds that tear the sky: dozens of tornadoes struck the central United States on Friday, causing significant damage and injuring at least three people according to authorities.
More than 70 tornadoes were recorded across the country on Friday by the US Weather Service (NWS), most of them around the city of Omaha, Nebraska and near Iowa.
On site, images from storm chasers posted on social networks show immense black whirlwinds sweeping the sky, returning earth, dust and materials in their path.
The result: dozens of destroyed buildings, torn power lines, derailed trains.
In Elkhorn, a suburb of Omaha, images show razed houses, roofs blown off, trees seemingly bare.
PHOTO CHRIS MACHIAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gopala Penmetsa walks near his completely destroyed home in Omaha, Nebraska.
“Rescue workers are continuing to check the affected homes and providing assistance to any injured people,” Omaha police wrote on X.
Further south, near the town of Lincoln, a tornado struck an industrial shed. The approximately 70 people who were there when the building collapsed were evacuated, but 3 of them are injured, but not life-threatening, Lancaster County authorities said at a press conference. .
The NWS, which issued numerous tornado warnings on Friday in several states in the central United States, predicts that this weather phenomenon will continue on Saturday in this vast region of agricultural plains, including as far as Texas.
Tornadoes, a weather phenomenon that is as impressive as it is difficult to predict, are relatively common in the United States, particularly in the central and southern parts of the country.