24 dead as tornadoes sweep across US

Twenty-four people have been killed and dozens injured after tornadoes hit Texas and flooding swept through the Midwest.

Days of extreme weather across the US have included heavy snow in New Mexico, west Texas, and the Oklahoma Panhandle, and flooding in parts of the Plains and Midwest.

Forty-three people have died across the country — the 11 killed in Texas, plus five in Illinois, eight in Missouri, and 19 in the south-east.

Dallas officials estimated that 1,450 homes had been damaged or destroyed in storms that the National Weather Service said produced nine tornadoes.

“This is a huge impact on our community, and we’re all suffering,” Garland Police Lieutenant Pedro Barineau said. In the north-east Dallas suburb, there have been eight deaths, 15 injuries, and 600 properties damaged.

An EF-4 tornado — which is the second-most powerful, with winds of up to 320km/h — hit the community late on Saturday, near the intersection of Interstate 30 and George Bush Turnpike, which is a major route.

Several North Texas tornado victims identified... https://t.co/QxlcjHwzcc pic.twitter.com/gsDHMUUTlR

— FOX 4 NEWS (@FOX4) December 28, 2015

Three people were found dead in vehicles, said Lt Barineau, and some cars were thrown from the road.

The destruction in Garland was so overwhelming that Dallas County judge Clay Jenkins declared the city a disaster within minutes of viewing the effects first hand.

Three other people died in Collin County, north-east of Dallas, according to sheriff’s deputy Chris Havey.

Texas governor Greg Abbott made disaster declarations on Sunday for four counties — Dallas, Collin, Rockwall, and Ellis — and warned that the number of victims could rise.

On the other side of the state, the Department of Public Safety in Amarillo discouraged travel throughout the Texas Panhandle — a 26-county area of 67,000km sq — because snow had made the roads impassable.

Interstate 40, the main east-west highway across the Panhandle, was shut down. Only a small section of the highway in Amarillo remained open.

Six people died overnight when two vehicles drove into flooded roadways in south-central Missouri.

Among them were four soldiers based at Fort Leonard Wood.

In southern Illinois, three adults and two children drowned when their vehicle sank in a rain-swollen creek.