Authorities say at least 11 dead in storms raking parts of South
BENTON, La. — At least 11 people died in severe storms that have swept across parts of the South, bringing high winds and unrelenting rain, authorities said.
The National Weather Service in Birmingham, Alabama, said Saturday via Twitter that three people were killed near Carrollton in Pickens County.
The Alabama Emergency Management Agency said that an “embedded tornado within a long line of intense thunderstorms” caused the deaths.
Two Texas first responders were killed Saturday morning and another was injured after they were hit by a vehicle while working the scene of a traffic accident during icy conditions, officials said.
Earlier Saturday, firefighters in Louisiana found the bodies of an elderly couple near their demolished trailer, the Bossier Parish Sheriff’s Office said via Facebook. The winds were so strong that the home was moved 200 feet from its foundation.
The National Weather Service in Shreveport estimated that a tornado, with about 135 mph winds, touched down in Bossier Parish.
The deaths of the victims, who were the in-laws of a parish deputy, brings the storm-related toll in the state to three.
Raymond Holden, 75, was killed in Oil City, according to the Caddo Parish Coroner’s Office. Holden was in bed when a tree fell on his home, crushing him, authorities said.
Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas on Saturday morning were clear of the severe thunderstorms that had passed through the night before.
One person died Friday night in Texas when a car flipped into a creek in Dallas. Lightning from Friday’s stormy weather is suspected of causing two house fires in the North Texas cities of Burleson and Mansfield. Officials said no one was injured.
In North Korea: An official said Saturday that the U.S. and South Korea are dreaming if they think that President Donald Trump’s sending a birthday message would get leader Kim Jong Un back to the negotiating table.
North Korean Foreign Ministry adviser Kim Kye Gwan repeated the North’s frustrations over stalled nuclear negotiations with the Trump administration and stressed that the country will never fully deal away its nuclear capabilities for ending U.S.-led sanctions.
He was responding to comments by South Korean presidential national security director Chung Eui-yong who said that Seoul had conveyed Trump’s birthday greetings to Kim. His birthday is believed to be Jan. 8.