Devastating storms kill at least 39 across 7 states in the South and Midwest

A father and son react after being caught in the middle of an intense storm after stopping for gas in Missouri.

PLANTERSVILLE, Ala. — Crammed into their two-door Toyota Celica with three huskies, Hailey Hart and her fiance Steve Romero hugged and prayed as a tornado rolled the car upside down before tossing it on its wheels again.

They heard screams for help minutes after the twister ripped apart their home in Tylertown, Mississippi. “It was a bad dream come true,” Romero said.

Next door, Hart’s grandparents crawled out from the rubble of their house where they had sought shelter in a bathroom on Saturday. They all escaped with just a few scratches and aches.

Throughout the South and Midwest, residents and work crews were beginning to clean up Monday and survey the destruction after severe weather across seven states kicked up a devastating combination of wildfires, dust storms and tornadoes, claiming at least 39 lives since Friday.

Wildfires in Oklahoma

Wind-driven wildfires across Oklahoma destroyed more than 400 homes, including more than 70 in and around Stillwater, home to Oklahoma State University. Four deaths were blamed on the fires or high winds, the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management said Sunday.

Crews trying to control the fires were quickly overwhelmed while going up against the high winds and low humidity fueling the flames on Friday, said Stillwater Fire Chief Terry Essary.

“It’s an insurmountable task,” he said.

Tornadoes in Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and Missouri

In Mississippi, six people died and more than 200 were displaced by a string of tornadoes across three counties, the governor said.

Within about an hour of each other on Saturday, two big twisters tore through the county that’s home to hard-hit Tylertown, according to a preliminary report from the National Weather Service.

At least three people were killed in central Alabama, including an 82-year-old woman and an 83-year-old man, the governor and a county sheriff said. A tornado also took the life of Dunk Pickering, a fixture in the community of Plantersville who often hosted live music events and helped neighbours during tough times.

“Whether he knew you or not, he would help anyone. I’ve known him for 20 years, he’s been like that ever since the day I first met him,” said John Green, 47, who found Pickering’s body in the wreckage of a building just across the street from Green’s own home. Pickering’s wife survived by hiding in a bathroom.

Green and other neighbours spent at least five hours on Saturday night pulling people from the rubble and carrying them to paramedics who were unable to reach the area because roads were blocked by fallen trees.

Scattered twisters killed at least a dozen people in the Missouri, authorities said.

Dakota Henderson said he and others rescuing trapped neighbours found five bodies in rubble Friday night outside what remained of his aunt’s house in Wayne County, Missouri.

In Arkansas, officials confirmed three deaths.

Dust storms in Kansas and Texas

The high winds spurred dust storms that led to almost a dozen deaths in car crashes Friday.

Eight people died in a Kansas highway pileup involving at least 50 vehicles, according to the state highway patrol. Authorities said three people also were killed in car crashes during a dust storm in Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle.

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Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press writers Jamie Stengle in Dallas, Sara Cline in Tylertown, Mississippi, Jeff Martin in Atlanta, Rebecca Reynolds in Louisville, Kentucky, and Jeff Roberson in Wayne County, Missouri contributed.