22 dead as powerful storms leave trail of destruction across several US states

A storm caused damage in Pryor, Oklahoma (Mike Simons/Tulsa World via AP)

A series of powerful storms swept over central and southern parts of the US during the country’s Memorial Day holiday weekend, killing at least 22 people and leaving a wide trail of destruction and power outages.

The destructive storms caused deaths in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kentucky and were just north of an oppressive, early season heatwave setting records from south Texas to Florida.