IOWA (AFP/ Xinhua) – Four adults and two children were killed when a tornado hit Madison County in the U.S. state of Iowa on Saturday, officials said.
At least four other adults were injured in the tornado that caused “widespread damage to both homes and properties,” the county’s emergency management director told a press briefing.
“This is, I think, the worst that anyone has seen in quite a long time,” Diogenes Ayala said. “This will be impactful for many years to come.”
National Weather Service Des Moines tweeted at 7:30 pm (0130 GMT Sunday) that “the worst is over for central Iowa.”
“Storms are moving off to the East. Areas west of the line, including the Des Moines metro, are in the clear.”
NWS said its survey teams would thoroughly investigate the damage on Sunday.
“This is pretty devastating for our community,” Ayala said, adding that rescue efforts would continue overnight.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds issued a disaster proclamation for Madison County, which allows state resources to be used to assist with recovery.
“Our hearts go out to all those affected by the deadly storms that tore through our state,” Reynolds said in a statement.
In December, dozens of devastating tornadoes ripped through five U.S. states overnight, leaving at least 79 people dead in Kentucky -- with fatalities also recorded in Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri and Illinois.
Meanwhile, at least 600 homes had been evacuated in the Florida Panhandle, the northwest part of the southeasternmost U.S. state of Florida, as wildfires continued to grow in the state, officials say.
There are currently 148 wildfires burning more than 7,100 acres (roughly 2,873 hectares) across Florida, the Florida Forest Service tweeted on Saturday afternoon. More than half of the acres are from two wildfires in the Florida Panhandle, according to the agency.
The fires “are seeing significant growth at this time because of high winds,” the Chipola Forestry Center, which services Bay County and much of the Florida Panhandle, wrote in an update.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told reporters on Saturday that hundreds of thousands of acres of downed trees from 2018’s Hurricane Michael, along with low humidity and strong winds, created “the perfect storm” for hazardous fire conditions in Bay County.
“This is a really significant, fast-moving fire,” DeSantis said during a press conference in Panama City.
More than 200 firefighters and emergency workers from around the Florida Panhandle worked overnight to strengthen containment lines and protect homes, officials said.
The wildfires had forced residents of at least 600 homes in the Florida Panhandle to evacuate, but that figure was expected to grow as new neighborhoods were placed under evacuation orders throughout the day. Two houses had already been destroyed, with 12 others damaged.