At least 26 people have died after a series of tornadoes swept through towns and cities in the South and Midwest of the United States.
Houses were destroyed and thousands of people lost power after the storm ravaged several states.
According to the Washington Post, more than 60 reports of the storm were recorded.
All states including Arkansas, Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana, Alabama and Mississippi have had weather-related deaths.
A tornado tore through the town of Wayne, Arkansas – a community about 100 miles (170 km) east of the state capital, Little Rock.
Ashley McMillan said she, her husband and their children huddled in a small bathroom with their dogs as the storm passed, “praying and saying goodbye to each other, because we felt like We are dead.”
A falling tree severely damaged their house, but they were safe.
He told JEE News: “We could feel the house shaking, we could hear loud noises, dishes shaking. And then it went quiet.”
Lisa Worden, a teacher at Vine High School, said the decision to send students home early was important.
“We got out at 1:30, which was a godsend from our superintendent, because otherwise the kids would be on the buses and the teachers would still be here. And so it would have been even more devastating,” he told JEE News.
Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency in the state of Arkansas on Friday, after which the National Guard was activated to help with recovery efforts.
He said he has discussed the situation with President Joe Biden, who has pledged federal aid.
Friday’s storms caused the roof of a heavy-metal theater to collapse in Belvidere, Illinois, killing one person and injuring 28.
As the storm continues to make its way eastward, millions of people are without power in several states.
According to the US Power Outages website, Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania were the hardest hit.
In a bulletin, the Storm Prediction Center warned that some expected storms could track long distances over land.
The deadly storm comes a week after a rare, long-track twister killed 26 people in Mississippi.
The Mississippi tornado moved 59 miles (94 km) last week and lasted about an hour and 10 minutes — an unusually long time for a tornado to sustain itself. About 2,000 homes were damaged, officials said.
President Biden visited the state on Friday to pay his respects.
