Tornadoes and the storms that created them wrecked havoc on the South and Midwest Friday night, killing at least 21 people in a path of destruction that included Arkansas‘ capital city and a roof collapse in a packed concert venue in Illinois.
Tornadoes and the storms that created them wrecked havoc on the South and Midwest Friday night, killing at least 21 people in a path of destruction that included Arkansas’ capital city and a roof collapse in a packed concert venue in Illinois.
The dead included seven in one Tennessee county, four in the small town of Wynne, Arkansas, three in Sullivan, Indiana, and four in Illinois.
The music venue was the Apollo Theater in Belvidere, about 70 miles northwest of downtown Chicago, where the Boston-based metal band Revocation was booked to play Friday night with Morbid Angel, Crypta, and Skeletal Remains.
Dan Zaccard, the Emergency Management director for Boone County, Illinois, said in a press conference Saturday that his office issued a tornado warning siren at 7:24 p.m., by 7:47 p.m., the call came in that the roof had collapsed. The area looked like a disaster, he said, with “numerous buildings damaged, trees down, vehicles flipped, a lot of damage.”
One 51-year-old man died in the collapse, while another 40 of the 260 or so attendees were injured, two with life-threatening injuries.
“They dragged someone out from the rubble, and I sat with him and I held his hand and I was (telling him), ‘It’s going to be OK.
