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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A monster storm system tore through the South and Midwest on Friday, spawning deadly tornadoes that shredded homes and shopping centers in Arkansas and collapsed a theater roof during a heavy metal concert in Illinois.At least one person was killed and more than two dozen were hurt, some critically, in the Little Rock area, authorities said. The town of Wynne in northeastern Arkansas was also devastated, and officials reported two dead there, along with destroyed homes and people trapped in the debris.Authorities said a theater roof collapsed during a tornado Friday night in Belvidere, Illinois, and that injuries have been reported.Authorities said a theater roof collapsed during a tornado in Belvidere, Illinois, killing one person and injuring 28. The Belvidere Police Department said the collapse occurred as a heavy storm rolled through the area and that calls began coming from the theater at 7:48 p.m. It said that an initial assessment was that a tornado had caused the damage.<blockquote>Our ministry partner Convoy of Hope is responding to the disaster:Convoy of Hope is responding to the tornado or tornadoes that hit Little Rock.&nbsp; Disaster Services team members are already en route to the affected areas with relief supplies for survivors of the storm.&nbsp;&nbsp;And as the storms move east, Convoy teams stand ready to respond to the areas where we are most needed.</blockquote>The destructive weather came as President Joe Biden toured the aftermath of a deadly tornado that struck in Mississippi one week ago and promised the government would help the area recover.The Little Rock tornado tore first through neighborhoods in the western part of the city and shredded a small shopping center that included a Kroger grocery store. It then crossed the Arkansas River into North Little Rock and surrounding cities, where widespread damage was reported to homes, businesses and vehicles.<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn.corpemf.com/news/52750.jpg" alt="Car is upturned in a Kroger parking lot after a severe storm swept through Little Rock, Ark"><figcaption>[Photo Credit: AP/Andrew DeMillo] Severe Weather Arkansas</figcaption></figure>In the evening, officials in Pulaski County announced a confirmed fatality in North Little Rock but did not immediately give details.The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Medical Center in Little Rock was operating at a mass casualty level and preparing for up to 20 patients, spokesperson Leslie Taylor said. Baptist Health Medical Center-Little Rock officials told KATV in the afternoon that 21 people had checked in there with tornado-caused injuries, including five in critical condition.Mayor Frank Scott Jr., who announced that he was requesting assistance from the National Guard, tweeted in the evening that officials were aware of 24 people who had been hospitalized in the city."Property damage is extensive and we are still responding,” he said.Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders activated 100 members of the Arkansas National Guard to help local authorities respond to the damage throughout the state.In Little Rock, resident Niki Scott took cover in the bathroom after her husband called to say a tornado was headed her way. She could hear glass shattering as the tornado roared past, and emerged afterward to find that her house was one of the few on her street that didn’t have a tree fall on it.“It’s just like everyone says. It got really quiet, then it got really loud,” Scott said afterward, as chainsaws roared and sirens blared in the area.Outside a Guitar Center, five people were captured on video aiming their phones at the swirling sky. “Uh, no, that’s an actual tornado, y’all. It’s coming this way,” Red Padilla, a singer and songwriter in the band Red and the Revelers, said in the video.Padilla told The Associated Press that he and five bandmates sheltered inside the store for around 15 minutes with over a dozen others while the tornado passed. The power went out, and they used the flashlights on their phones to see.“It was real tense,” Padilla said.At Clinton National Airport, passengers and workers sheltered temporarily in bathrooms.“Praying for all those who were and remain in the path of this storm,” Sanders, who declared a state of emergency, said on Twitter. “Arkansans must continue to stay weather aware as storms are continuing to move through.”About 50 miles west of Memphis, Tennessee, the small city of Wynne, Arkansas, saw “widespread damage” from a tornado, Sanders confirmed.City Councilmember Lisa Powell Carter told AP by phone that Wynne was without power and roads were full of debris.“I’m in a panic trying to get home, but we can’t get home,” she said. “Wynne is so demolished. ... There’s houses destroyed, trees down on streets.”Police Chief Richard Dennis told WHBQ-TV that the city suffered “total destruction” and multiple people were trapped.City officials implemented a curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.The unrelenting tornadoes continued moving east into the evening.<figure class="media"><oembed url="https://twitter.com/ReedTimmerAccu/status/1641984384306753538"></oembed></figure>Police in Covington, Tennessee, also reported storm damage including downed power lines and toppled trees.Multiple tornadoes were reported moving through parts of eastern Iowa, with sporadic damage to buildings. Images showed at least one flattened barn and some houses with roofing and siding ripped off.One tornado veered just west of Iowa City, home to the University of Iowa, which cancelled a watch party at an on-campus arena for the women’s basketball Final Four game. Video from KCRG-TV showed toppled power poles and roofs ripped off an apartment building in the suburb of Coralville and significantly damaged homes in the city of Hills.Nearly 90,000 customers in Arkansas lost power, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks outages.About 32,000 were without electricity in neighboring Oklahoma, where where wind gusts of up to 60 mph fueled fast-moving grass fires. People were urged to evacuate homes in far northeast Oklahoma City, and troopers shut down portions of Interstate 35 near the suburb of Edmond.More outages were reported in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas.<figure class="media"><oembed url="https://twitter.com/wx_Frankie/status/1641955995076247553"></oembed></figure>In Illinois, Ben Wagner, chief radar operator for the Woodford County Emergency Management Agency, said hail broke windows on cars and buildings in the area of Roanoke, northeast of Peoria.Fire crews were battling several blazes near El Dorado, Kansas, and some residents were asked to evacuate, including about 250 elementary school children who were relocated to a high school.At Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, a traffic management program was put into effect that caused arriving planes to be delayed by nearly two hours on average, WFLD-TV reported.The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center had forecast an unusually large outbreak of thunderstorms with the potential to cause hail, damaging wind gusts and strong tornadoes that could move for long distances over the ground.Such “intense supercell thunderstorms ” are only expected to become more common, especially in Southern states, as temperatures rise around the world.Meteorologists said conditions Friday were similar to those a week ago that unleashed the devastating twister that killed at least 21 people and damaged some 2,000 homes in Mississippi.The toll was especially steep in western Mississippi's Sharkey County, where 13 people were killed in a county of 3,700 residents. Winds of up to 200 mph (322 kph) barreled through the rural farming town of Rolling Fork, reducing homes to piles of rubble, flipping cars and toppling the town’s water tower.<figure class="media"><oembed url="https://twitter.com/FrannyWX/status/1641912074098835456"></oembed></figure>The hazardous conditions were a result of strong southerly winds transporting copious amounts of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico north, where they will interact with the strengthening storm system.The weather service is forecasting another batch of intense storms next Tuesday in the same general area as last week. At least the first 10 days of April will be rough, Accuweather meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said earlier this week.<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn.corpemf.com/news/52766.jpg" alt="Debris litters a parking lot and vehicles are seen thrown around after a tornado touched down near the intersection of 23rd Avenue and Ninth Street in Coralville, Iowa"><figcaption>[Photo Credit: Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette via AP] Debris litters a parking lot and vehicles are seen thrown around after a tornado touched down near the intersection of 23rd Avenue and Ninth Street in Coralville, Iowa</figcaption></figure>Associated Press writers Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Harm Venhuizenin in Madison, Wisconsin, Isabella O'Malley in Philadelphia, Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington, Michael Goldberg in Jackson, Mississippi and Trisha Ahmed in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

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Jacob Dilks, right, looks over storm damage to his home in Hills, Iowa 

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The town of Wynne in northeastern Arkansas was devastated. Police Chief Richard Dennis said the city suffered “total destruction” and multiple people were trapped.

Lives Lost In Tornado Outbreak, National Guard Activated, Convoy Of Hope Responds 

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — As new volunteers kept streaming into the Church of the Incarnation, Reynaldo Hidalgo prepped fresh palm fronds for them to weave into elaborate designs that will be blessed at services on Palm Sunday, the start of Christianity’s holiest week.“It’s to give welcome to the king, our Lord Jesus Christ,” said Hidalgo, who has led traditional Mexican palm weaving workshops here for half a dozen years, along with his wife. “We wanted to keep a memory of this tradition.”Many Christians around the world will be getting blessed palm or other tree branches this weekend, in commemoration of Jesus’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem, when the Gospel narrates that crowds spread branches on the road before him.<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn.corpemf.com/news/52717.jpg" alt="Isabel Tenorio, right, teaches how to weave palm fronds into elaborate designs to Kari Mendoza, left, and her mother, Maria Teresa Mendoza, at the Church of the Incarnation in anticipation of Palm Sunday in Minneapolis"><figcaption>[Photo Credit: AP Photo/Giovanna Dell’Orto]</figcaption></figure>At Hidalgo's Catholic church, and others across the country where parishioners observe the Easter traditions of many Latin American and European countries, the fronds are woven and braided into intricate designs of up to several feet, often decorated with rosettes, ribbons and images of Jesus or the saints.It’s a celebration not just of faith, but ancient cultural crafts, often related to spring and farming rituals, that they’re eager to pass on to younger generations.Teens and younger children, some lugging their homework, gathered Wednesday in Incarnation’s basement, where the tropical perfume of fresh palms contrasted with the below-freezing evening outside.Maria Consuelo Palapa came with her 7-year-old son, Omar, “first to help the church, and to teach the child my traditions” from the Mexican state of Puebla.<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn.corpemf.com/news/52716.jpg" alt="Maria Consuelo Palapa weaves a palm frond in a traditional Mexican design with help from her son Omar, 7, at the Church of the Incarnation in Minneapolis"><figcaption>[Photo Credit: AP Photo/Giovanna Dell’Orto]</figcaption></figure>When she ran into trouble weaving the back of a two-foot-long palm shaped into a giant flower, she consulted Hidalgo’s wife, Isabel Tenorio, who supervised the efforts to produce more than 400 palms before this weekend’s Masses. They will be sold then, all proceeds going to the community outreach and maintenance costs of the historic church.“I would like that the community kept this going, to help our church,” Tenorio said as the woven fronds piled up on the large table in front of her and so many volunteers kept coming that some tried their hand at the craft standing up.One of the first to arrive was Adriana Mozo, a long-time parishioner but first-time weaver whose parents migrated from Mexico.“I’m very crafty, but this is wild,” she said as she tackled the green fronds, brittle and resistant at the same time. She bought one a couple of years ago that’s still framed in her dining room. “It feels like a connection to God.”The palms are kept in places of honor in many homes for a year, when they’re traditionally burned to make ashes for the Ash Wednesday celebrations that mark the beginning of Lent.“It’s a form of ratifying a pact by Mexican believers with the Catholic religion,” said Elio Masferrer, an anthropologist at Mexico’s National School of Anthropology and History. “It’s a form of endorsing a social alliance,” especially for migrant communities.<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn.corpemf.com/news/52718.jpg" alt="Victor Ramirez weaves a palm frond into a rosette at the Church of the Incarnation in Minneapolis"><figcaption>[Photo Credit: AP Photo/Giovanna Dell’Orto]</figcaption></figure>At Saint Michael Church in New Haven, Connecticut, Jean Quartiano started weaving workshops precisely so that a tradition brought over by nuns from Italy nearly a century ago wouldn’t be lost. This week, she’s been at the church up to 12 hours a day, training volunteers to braid palm crucifixes they will sell at Mass, to help keep the lights on in the shrinking parish.“We’re going to keep the tradition alive as long as we can,” Quartiano said.Back in Minneapolis, a high school junior who came for the chance to learn a new craft lined up for Tenorio’s advice behind a mother and daughter duo who remembered seeing artisans selling the palm designs outside churches in their native Puebla.“I was raised in this culture, where it’s a blessing to have a little blessed palm,” Kari Mendoza said as her mother nodded.Victor Ramirez came with his wife and 16-year-old son to learn to weave palms, which his grandparents kept in their home in the Mexican state of Morelos as protection against storms and other evils.Even with a finger in a splint, he was soon deftly and quickly creating palm rosettes to decorate the much larger creations.“We all keep palms as a symbol of joy,” Ramirez said.

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Reynaldo Hidalgo, right, teaches a volunteer how to weave palm fronds at the Church of the Incarnation in Minneapolis

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