(CNN) Devastating storms and tornadoes ripped through the South and Midwest Friday into early Saturday, killing at least five people, injuring dozens more, trapping others in their homes, and causing damage to businesses and critical infrastructure — with the threat of more severe weather approaching Saturday afternoon.
More than 50 preliminary tornado reports were recorded Friday in at least six states, including in Arkansas, where storms killed three people – two in the small town of Wynne and one person in North Little Rock, local officials said.
Two people died in Indiana in a storm Friday night that destroyed homes and a volunteer fire department near Sullivan, a town about 95-miles southwest of Indianapolis, State Police said. Sgt. Matt Ames said.
At least 50 people were sent to hospitals in Arkansas’ Pulaski County, where a tornado roared through the Little Rock area on Friday, county spokeswoman Madeline Roberts said. Five others were hospitalized after a tornado touched down Friday in Covington, Tennessee, according to a spokeswoman for Baptist Memorial Health Care.
Preliminary information shows that at least 22 tornadoes were reported in Illinois, eight in Iowa, four in Tennessee, five in Wisconsin and a couple in Mississippi.
In Arkansas, at least a dozen tornadoes were reported, including in the Little Rock area. Arkansas’ twisters left homes nearly level, and streets were covered in roofs and walls of former buildings.
William Williams, who told CNN affiliate KATV that he is an employee of a Kroger supermarket in Little Rock, said he was “grateful to be alive” after a tornado touched down near the area while he was at work Friday afternoon. He took shelter inside the store, and came out afterward to see people injured, including a woman he said had a serious leg injury.
“Everything happened in like five seconds. It came — boom,” Williams told KATV. “You hear a lot of commotion and stuff. … I go outside, and it’s crazy. People have blood on their faces. … I’m just thankful to be alive.”
About 100 miles east of Little Rock, the town of Wynne was “cut in half by damage from east to west,” Mayor Jennifer Hobbs told CNN Friday night.
“We’re still in triage mode,” Hobbs said, adding that crews are trying to determine the severity of the damage and any potential damage.
Some homes in Wynne — home to about 8,000 residents — were completely crushed into piles of wood while others had their roofs torn off, exposing the inside of houses filled with debris. typhoon, drone footage provided by CNN’s Ray Sharp show. Many trees fell, making what appeared to be residential roads impassable and damaging structures.
A severe storm arrived on Friday a week after severe weather ravaged the Southeast and killed at least 26 people. An overnight tornado, making people the most vulnerable, leveled much of Rolling Fork, Mississippi, where maximum winds of 170 mph were estimated.
The roof of the theater collapsed in the middle of the storm
In northern Illinois, more than 200 people were inside the Apollo Theater in Belvidere for an event when its roof collapsed Friday night, leaving one person dead and dozens injured, the fire chief of town The collapse came as a line of storms packing 50 mph winds and pelting hail moved through the area, according to officials and the National Weather Service. It was not immediately clear whether the typhoon was the cause of the collapse of the cinema’s roof.
Twenty-eight people were taken to hospitals because of the collapse, Belvidere Fire Chief Shawn Schadle said.
While in Indiana, the storm passed through Sullivan County, trapping the wife of a local official inside their home until their son rescued her.
Jim Pirtle, the emergency management director for the county, told CNN that his home and several others were destroyed Friday night.
“I called (my wife) 45 minutes before it hit. I told her, ‘Robin, you have to go somewhere.’ We don’t have a basement,” Pirtle said. “I was on the phone with him and he was crying, ‘Jim I love you’ and it started tearing the house down.
“We got hit bad,” Pirtle said by phone from Florida, adding that he was working with emergency officials remotely.
“I’m still not sure about the deaths,” he added. “We still have people missing.”
Homes in Sullivan, a city home to about 4,000 residents, many homes were severely damaged by the storm, Mayor Clint Lamb said.
“We need all citizens to stay safe and stay put,” Lamb said in a Facebook post overnight. “First responders need clear streets to get to the affected areas. Please pray for the Sullivan families and public safety personnel.”
Howard, Johnson and Sullivan counties were hit by the storms, according to meteorologist Andrew White of the Indianapolis Office of the National Weather Service.
However, damage in Howard County was minimal and no injuries were reported, according to emergency management director Janice Hart.
More tornadoes may come
Tornadoes may still occur southeastern Indiana, western Ohio and northern Kentucky on Saturday through 5 a.m. ET, according to the Storm Prediction Center. The area, which includes the cities of Dayton and Cincinnati, is under a tornado watch that warns of wind gusts up to 70 mph with large hail.
A tornado watch is also in effect for central northeast Alabama — including Birmingham — and northwest Georgia until 8 a.m. CT, according to the Storm Prediction Center.
Check out this interactive content on CNN.com
For Saturday, about 55 million people are under a slight risk of severe weather – a Level 2 out of 5 – in parts of the Ohio Valley, the Northeast, including New York City and Philadelphia, and parts of the Southeast , according to Storm. Prediction Center.
Scattered strong to severe thunderstorms may occur in these areas, and hail and a few tornadoes are possible, the center said.
On Friday, large hail proved dangerous when it bombarded northern Illinois, cracking and breaking windshields on cars, according to a Facebook post from the Fulton County Emergency Services and Disaster Agency.
About 78 miles southeast of there, several businesses were “basically destroyed,” Sheriff Jack Campbell told CNN, and up to 40 homes were damaged around Sherman, less than 10 miles to the north. in Springfield.
More than 450,000 homes and businesses went dark early Saturday in Indiana, Illinois, Arkansas and Tennessee, with about a third of the outages reported in Indiana, according to the tracking website PowerOutage.us.
In Arkansas, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency, announcing that the state had “no resources left” to respond and recover from the storm and activated the state’s National Guard.
CNN’s Rebekah Riess, Sara Smart, Mallika Kallingal, Andy Rose, Gene Norman, Mike Saenz, Paradise Afshar and Christina Maxouris contributed to this report.