This morning, Houston ISD has reported that campuses across the district have undergone significant damage from Hurricane Beryl’s path across Houston.
Their just-released statement:
HISD was dramatically impacted by Hurricane Beryl. At the beginning of the week the overwhelming majority of our campuses were without power – many are still not online. As of this morning, roughly 70 campuses are without power, 50 campuses had trees down, and 60 campuses reported some roof or structural damages.
We are working diligently to address these issues and ensure the safety and well-being of our students and staff. Our Facilities and IT teams have been working around the clock this week to get campuses back online to serve summer school students next week, and then begin preparations for the 2024-2025 school year.
The carnage left by Hurricane Beryl in the Caribbean this week is a stark reminder of the destruction such storms can wreak on entire communities. And with meteorologists expecting an above normal Atlantic hurricane season this year, nearly 33 million homes from Texas to Maine could face danger from the savage winds, storm surges and heavy rainfall such tempests can produce, real estate data provider CoreLogic estimates.
Read on to learn what experts say homeowners can do to harden their properties against hurricanes.
Family members survey their home destroyed in the passing of Hurricane Beryl, in Ottley Hall, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Tuesday, July 2, 2024.
Lucanus Ollivierre / AP
Cover the windows
When time is of the essence, the quickest and cheapest way to protect your home from a hurricane is nailing plywood across all the windows. Owners who have more time to prepare can protect windows by installing so-called roll shutters, which a little like a garage door and which run between $300 and $400.
“That’s going to protect you from the debris flying into your window,” said Michael Gridley, a residential construction professor at SUNY Morrisville in upstate New York, noting that many homeowners can mount plywood or install roll shutters themselves.
But such fixes are temporary and likely won’t keep glass from shattering and falling into your home, Joshua Parrish, a general contractor in Georgia, told CBS MoneyWatch.
Experts say “roll shutters,” seen here covering a home’s windows in a 3D rendering, can protect properties from flying debris kicked up by a hurricane.
Getty Images/KangeStudio
For stronger, long-term protection, a professional can install hurricane windows, which typically have a steel or aluminum frame and reinforced glass.
“The glass actually has two layers of heat-treated glass, and there’s plastic in between them. It will actually protect you,” Gridley said.
Not surprisingly, hurricane windows are costly. At $125 to $150 per square feet, installing them could easily cost a homeowner between $10,000 and $30,000, he noted.
Barricade your doors
As with the measures for safeguarding windows, homeowners have three basic options: putting up plywood, adding a larger roll shutter or having a hurricane door installed.
Parrish said mounting plywood on sliding glass or patio doors should provide sufficient protection from Category 2 (wind speeds of 96–110 mph) or Category 3 (wind speeds 111-129 mph) hurricanes. For more powerful storms, he recommends a hurricane door. That starts with deciding whether to get a steel, aluminum or fiberglass door.
“I would lean toward getting something like fiberglass just because, in case of a dent, something in that family of metal would be more difficult to fix and you’d have to end up replacing it,” Parrish said.
Hurricane doors typically cost between $2,400 and $4,000 depending on the structure and size, Gridley said.
Reinforce your roof
Before making any changes to your roof, it’s important to first check for soft spots in your roof deck, nail down any loose shingles and clear the gutters so water flows quickly away from your home, experts said.
After the roof checkup is done, homeowners can generally go one of two routes. For those who don’t have the time or money to replace the roof, Gridley said they should consider cementing the existing shingles together. Shingles are already nailed down and stuck together with asphalt, but over time the asphalt cracks and fades — adding cement reinforces them.
Another, pricier option — but one that offers better protection, including from an insurance perspective — is to install a metal roof.
“It fastens down, it has less room for [wind] pickup — it’s going to be the best option,” Gridley said.
Experts say a metal roof is less prone to being lifted off a home in a hurricane.
Dan Reynolds Photography/Getty Images
Metal roofs are installed so there are no “seams where wind can get underneath and start lifting that off the building,” Parrish said, adding, “It’s probably going to be double the cost of a typical shingle roof. But it’s going to last you almost forever — 40, 50, 60 years.”
A 2,000 square-foot metal roof costs an average of roughly $27,000, according to Architectural Digest.
Seal the foundation
Examine the foundation of your home and the walls of your basement or crawl space for cracks, the experts said. If you notice deep, long cracks, consider hiring a waterproofing company to seal them.
It’s vital to get cracks fixed because there could be water pressing against a foundation wall — structural risk that could lead to flooding during a hurricane, Parrish said.
“That’s additional water pressure beating against your home and, if it’s severe enough, it could cause other issues, and now you have a bigger problem on your hands,” Parrish said.
Khristopher J. Brooks is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch. He previously worked as a reporter for the Omaha World-Herald, Newsday and the Florida Times-Union. His reporting primarily focuses on the U.S. housing market, the business of sports and bankruptcy.
Hurricane Beryl’s historic rampage across the Caribbean left “immense destruction” when it passed St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the prime minister. On the Caribbean country’s Union Island, 90% of the houses have been “severely damaged or destroyed.”
“Union Island has been devastated,” Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said during a press briefing Monday.
“Their roofs … the Union Island airport’s roof is gone. It’s no more.”
The tiny island is just 3 miles long and about a mile wide, with roughly 3,000 residents, according to the island’s information center — a size that can only be considered minuscule compared to the size and strength of Hurricane Beryl.
The storm, which grew from a tropical depression to a major hurricane in less than two days, has been described as an extremely dangerous and rare hurricane by forecasters and experts. It first made landfall as a Category 4 storm on Monday on the Grenada island of Carriacou, which sits just next to Union Island.
Along with the destruction on Union Island, the island of Bequia also had damage, although not to the same extent. At least one person died, he said, adding that “there may well be more fatalities.”
“There’s still the islandwide blackout,” Gonsalves said. “…There are a few communities which do not have water because of the system having been blocked.”
Storm damage was also reported in Barbados and Carriacou, an island that’s part of Grenada. And Beryl is not yet done wreaking havoc.
“Beryl is still expected to be near major hurricane intensity as it moves into the central Caribbean and passes near Jamaica on Wednesday and the Cayman Islands on Thursday,” the National Hurricane Center said. “…Storm surge could raise water levels by as much as 5 to 8 feet above normal tide levels in areas of onshore winds along the immediate coast of Jamaica.”
Li Cohen is a senior social media producer at CBS News. She previously wrote for amNewYork and The Seminole Tribune. She mainly covers climate, environmental and weather news.
Ventura’s famous pier reopened Saturday after massive waves damaged the landmark last year.
Social media posts and news video footage showed people striding onto the pier early Saturday, carrying fishing poles, coolers and folding chairs. The pier — the oldest in California — is a popular fishing and sight-seeing spot and draws tourists, families and lovebirds.
“The Ventura Pier is open!” the city of Ventura announced on its X feed.
High surf from a winter storm pummeled the boardwalk in January 2023. In December, another storm swept through, causing more damage to the pier’s piles and braces.
Mary Joyce Ivers, deputy public works director in Ventura, told KTLA that the city had to replace 37 timber piles, which hold up the deck of the pier, as well as 100 pieces of hardware and cross-bracing and 3,000 square feet of deck board.
“It’s such an important piece of our city,” Ivers told KTLA. “It’s such a great landmark and so many great things happen on this pier for families and our community.”
The repairs cost at least $3.3 million, with the federal government and the state expected to pick up the tab, according to a city news release.
The pier, first built in 1872 as a private commercial wharf, has been repaired or rebuilt countless times throughout its history. It closed in 1992 for 13 months after it was clobbered by waves and reopened after a $3.5-million restoration.
More recently, it closed in 2015 for several months for repairs after another storm.
Ventura purchased the pier for $7,000 in 1940 but gave it to the state in 1949.
In 1990, the city moved to take it back after state officials said they were considering demolishing the structure because of the high maintenance costs.
Severe storms tore through the central and southeast U.S. late Tuesday and Wednesday, spawning damaging tornadoes, producing massive hail, and killing two people in Tennessee and another in North Carolina.
The storm that rumbled across northeastern Tennessee brought high winds that knocked down powerlines and trees. Claiborne County Sheriff Bob Brooks said a 22-year-old man was in a car struck by one of the trees. Claiborne County Mayor Joe Brooks also confirmed the death in a social media post.
Wednesday afternoon, a tornado emergency — the National Weather Service’s highest alert level — was issued for an area south of Nashville including the towns of Spring Hill, Chapel Hill and Eagleville.
The National Weather Service had previously reported a likely tornado on the ground in nearby Columbia, about 45 miles south of Nashville.
Columbia Mayor Chaz Molder confirmed in a statement at least one person died because of the storm, but no details on the cause of death were immediately provided.
Molder said there was a “number of sightings of confirmed tornado touch-downs” in the area that resulted in “bodily injuries and property damage.”
Rita Thompson, Marketing & Communications director with Maury Regional Health, said the hospital had received five patients. One died, another was in serious condition and three had injuries that were not life-threatening.
The Maury County Office of Emergency Management in a statement urged “everyone to stay out of the areas hit” by the storm, adding that all schools in the county, which includes the city of Columbia, would be closed Thursday.
Northeast of Nashville, a flash flood emergency was issued for Sumner and Robertson counties including the cities of Hendersonville and Gallatin. The National Weather Service said water rescues were ongoing in those areas and described the flooding from heavy thunderstorms as life-threatening.
“Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order,” the weather agency alert said.
The National Weather Service in Nashville on Wednesday evening issued a tornado watch for parts of Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee until 3 a.m. CDT. The weather service continued issuing tornado warnings into the night, mostly in Tennessee, but also in Missouri, Alabama, Georgia and Texas.
In North Carolina, a state of emergency was declared for Gaston County Wednesday evening following a large storm. First responders were working to clear roads of downed power lines and broken trees and were helping residents, officials said. The New Hope Fire Department responded to a tree down on a car. One person in the car was killed and another was taken to a hospital, officials said.
More than 152,000 customers were without power in North Carolina and Tennessee Wednesday night, according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us.
The Crowder family surveys their home destroyed by a tornado on May 7, 2024, in Barnsdall, Oklahoma. The EF3 twister that struck claimed one life and destroyed dozens of homes in the community of just over 1,000 people.
Brandon Bell / Getty Images
The National Weather Service confirmed tornadoes touched down Tuesday in western Ohio: five in Warren County and one each in Darke, Mercer and Auglaize counties. The weather service said crews are still surveying areas of Franklin and Butler counties to determine if tornadoes struck there, as well. Radar indicated a tornado struck Jefferson County, but teams will have to evaluate the damage to determine its rating, said Jeff Craven, a weather service meteorologist in Pittsburgh.
Crews on Wednesday were able to survey the damage caused by the strong storms that contained hail and heavy rains and knocked out power to thousands of utility customers.
In Michigan, weather service meteorologist Nathan Jeruzal said the tornadoes there touched down one each in Kalamazoo, Cass and Branch counties — all in the southwestern part of the state. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency for four counties.
Kalamazoo County’s Portage area was hard hit as a FedEx facility was ripped apart and more than a dozen mobile homes were destroyed. About 50 people temporarily were trapped inside the damaged facility because of downed power lines.
More than a dozen homes were destroyed in a mobile home park in adjacent Pavilion Township and 16 people were injured, said Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller.
Samantha Smith clutched a box Wednesday afternoon as she stepped from her mother’s partially wrecked home in Pavilion Township, about 137 miles west of Detroit. Inside the box were her grandmother’s ashes. Being able to recover the most cherished of items offered Smith a rare moment of relief amid the storm’s devastation.
Her parents and brother were injured during the storm but survived.
“I have thanked God probably a billion times since this happened yesterday,” she said. “My kids are healthy and good. We just gotta make back up what we lost.”
Travis Wycoff ventured out Tuesday night after seeing on radar that a tornado had touched down in the Portage area, and he said he helped an elderly couple out of their partially collapsed home and freed a service dog from a home.
“There were a lot of people running through the streets trying to find people and their pets,” Wycoff said. “It was just a lot of chaos.”
In southern Indiana, the National Weather Service confirmed a tornado touched down early Wednesday, damaging homes in a subdivision north of the city of Sellersburg, located about 12 miles north of Louisville, Kentucky.
The Clark County Emergency Management Agency said the storm damaged 24 structures.
Candice Holmes, a resident of the Lewis & Clark subdivision north of Sellersburg, said she, her husband and son sought shelter in their bathroom when they heard the approaching storm and “the wind just picked up all at once.”
“It was definitely a scary moment. … And I’m glad we’re alive,” Holmes told WDRB-TV.
Tornadoes were also confirmed in Pennsylvania just outside Pittsburgh, in central Arkansas and in northern West Virginia. The West Virginia twister, which started early Wednesday in far eastern Ohio, was at least the 11th tornado this year in the state that sees two tornadoes in an average year.
Baseball-sized hail was reported Wednesday in areas just southwest of St. Louis, Missouri. Heavy downpours caused flash flooding and at least one water rescue near Sullivan, a town that was struck by a small tornado just two days earlier. Damaging hail also was reported in the Kansas City area.
Tuesday’s storms came a day after parts of the central U.S. were battered by heavy rain, strong winds, hail and twisters. Both the Plains and Midwest have been hammered by tornadoes this spring.
Across the U.S., the entire week is looking stormy. The Midwest and the South are expected to get the brunt of the bad weather through the rest of the week, including in Indianapolis, Memphis, Nashville, St. Louis and Cincinnati — cities where more than 21 million people live. It should be clear over the weekend.
A series of violent storms caused tornadoes and damaging weather conditions, stretching from the South to the Ohio Valley, resulting in at least three fatalities and numerous injuries.
In Pennsylvania, two individuals lost their lives due to falling trees amid the storms on Wednesday, as per a report by CNN affiliate WPVI. A tree falling on their vehicles while they were driving resulted in the death of an 82-year-old woman in Collegeville and a 70-year-old man in Aston Township, officials informed WPVI.
Kentucky witnessed the death of at least one person due to the harsh storms on Tuesday, as announced by Governor Andy Beshear. The victim died in a vehicle crash in Campbell County amid severe weather conditions. Governor Beshear declared a state of emergency statewide on Tuesday following significant storm damage, especially in the Lexington area, although no other deaths or serious injuries were reported in the state.
Injuries in Indiana, State of Emergency in West Virginia
The storms also injured at least 10 individuals in Jeffersonville, Indiana, located just north of Louisville, according to the town’s mayor speaking to CNN affiliate WLKY.
West Virginia’s Governor, Jim Justice, declared a state of emergency Tuesday for multiple counties, including Fayette, Kanawha, Lincoln, and Nicholas, due to the storms causing “flooding, downed trees, power outages, and road blockages”. Kevin Walker, the director of Fayette County, West Virginia’s Office of Emergency Management, reported that at least 13 homes suffered damage and some residents were injured, though the injuries were not life-threatening.
Tornadoes and Damages Across Multiple States
Between Tuesday and Wednesday morning, 16 tornadoes were reported across Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia, along with numerous reports of damaging winds, some reaching over 100 mph in Kentucky.
In Georgia, a tornado significantly damaged Conyers, southeast of Atlanta, early Wednesday morning. The storm caused a tree to fall on a teen’s car, who was then rescued and hospitalized. The National Weather Service office in Peachtree City classified the tornado as EF2, with a path length of approximately 9.5 miles and a width of 800 yards, featuring winds up to 115 mph.
An elementary school in Ohio was severely damaged by a storm, with Fairland West Elementary in Proctorville facing destruction. Fortunately, students were on spring break at the time. Over in West Virginia, more than 53,000 utility customers were left without power after strong winds swept through the state.
In Tennessee, a funeral home and several homes suffered damage in Sunbright due to the storm system, which included two tornadoes on Tuesday. A tornado in Sunbright was rated EF1 by the National Weather Service after a damage assessment.
Oklahoma experienced structural damage in Barnsdall from four tornadoes on Monday. Homes, garages, and roofs suffered damage, according to Barnsdall Police. Missouri also saw three tornadoes on Monday, as reported by the Storm Prediction Center.
In southern Indiana, high winds or a possible tornado caused several vehicles to flip over on Interstate 265, resulting in minor injuries, according to Indiana State Police in Sellersburg.
The storm system continues to pose a threat of tornadoes, strong winds, and large hail across the Southeast and East Coast, from Florida to the mid-Atlantic, affecting over 30 million people.
A severe storm front hit the Midwest Thursday, spurring multiple suspected tornadoes in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky which damaged homes and knocked out power to thousands, authorities said.
Storm damage in Indiana was reported in the east central city of Winchester, according to Indiana State Police, but it was unclear if there were any fatalities or injuries.
Joseph Nield, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Indianapolis, said it was highly likely a tornado caused significant damage in the Winchester area, based on radar data and reports from storm spotters and local officials.
“It appears that is the most significant damage that we’ve had reported to us,” he said.
A Facebook post on the Winchester Community High School page said all the schools in that school district would be closed on Friday. Another post said the high school had electricity and was open for emergency use for people who “need somewhere warm and dry.
Preliminary assessments indicated that “up to 50%” of structures Selma, Indiana, a small town located about 25 miles west of Winchester, had sustained tornado and storm damage, the Delaware County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management reported. Delaware County said that only minor injuries had been reported so far, and only one person was taken to a hospital.
Officials were aware of a suspected tornado that had struck western Ohio’s Logan County northwest of Columbus on Thursday evening, Helen Norris, director of the Logan County Emergency Management Agency, told CBS News in an email.
Photos posted to social media showed what appeared to be extensive residential damage in the Logan County community of Indian Lake.
Y’all pray for the folks of Indian Lake… cops said I missed the tornado by about two minutes… pic.twitter.com/ITY3f6gkjF
Earlier in the night, the Logan County Sheriff’s Office reported that the county had been under a tornado warning.
The suspected tornado was also believed to have caused damage in neighboring Mercer County, Ohio. The Mercer County Emergency Management Agency told CBS News that three people in the town of Celina sustained non-life-threatening injuries, two of whom were hospitalized.
As of Thursday night, about 34,000 customers were without power in Ohio, according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us.
Storms also damaged homes and trailers in the Ohio River community of Hanover, Indiana.
The sheriff’s office for Indiana’s Jefferson County, which includes Hanover, reported on Facebook Thursday evening that “tornadoes touched down in several locations,” damaging “multiple homes and structures.” It’s unclear if there were any injuries.
Gayle Liter and his wife told CBS affiliate WKLY that their Hanover home, which they had just moved into about three months ago, was destroyed by the tornado.
“Total destruction, the inside, everything,” Liter said.
A home destroyed by a suspected tornado in Jefferson County, Indiana. March 14, 2024.
Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office/Facebook
Sgt. Stephen Wheeles of the Indiana State Police posted photos of the damage to Jefferson County on social media showing one home with its roof torn off and another missing roof shingles, as well as an image of a baseball-sized hailstone.
Around 2,000 Duke Energy customers in Hanover lost power at one point during the storms, the company reported.
In Kentucky, Trimble County Emergency Management Director Andrew Stark said the storms damaged at least 50 structures, including homes.
“We have a whole bunch of damage,” Stark told the Lousiville Courier Journal.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear issued a statement saying a tornado touched down along the Indiana state border in Gallatin and Trimble counties and there were reports of some minor injuries.
He urged Kentuckians to stay aware of the weather as more storms were expected across the state Thursday evening and overnight.
“It does appear that there is some really significant damage, especially to the town of Milton in Trimble County,” Beshear said. “We think there are over 100 structures that are potentially damaged.”
The state’s emergency operations center was activated to coordinate storm response, Beshear said.
Large pieces of hail also were reported in parts of the St. Louis area this afternoon.
On Wednesday night, a supercell thunderstorm spun up a tornado as severe weather moved through Alta Vista, Kansas. The hail, some larger than softballs, battered parts of northern Kansas.
GENEVA (WLS) — Dozens of people remain displaced after eleven tornadoes struck the Chicago area Tuesday night.
Some of the worst damage occurred in Mundelein, where there is still a lot of clean-up to do.
An EF-1 tornado caused major damage, ripping off part of the roof of an apartment building.
Many residents are now staying in a shelter or with family and friends as they wait to hear what their future holds next. The village says 59 people are without homes.
Maria Aguirre lived in her apartment for 16 years before the storm. Now she and her family are staying at the American Red Cross shelter at Community Protestant Church.
“I was just screaming and grabbed my kids and running to the bathroom. It was so scary. I was so shaky,” Maria said. “The good thing is we are alive. We had nothing happen to us.”
Chopper7 surveyed the damage, with the top floors of the apartment building shredded.
Meanwhile church leaders and the Red Cross are trying to help displaced residents however they can. Fortunately there have been no reports of any serious injures here.
Mansions perched on the edge of oceanfront cliffs in Dana Point. Homes red-tagged across shifting soil in Rancho Palos Verdes. Mudslides hurling debris into homes in Studio City.
The river of storms sending buckets of rain across Southern California this month have caused slope collapses and shifting ground, placing homes into harm’s way, The Washington Post reported.
With the damage from floods, mudslides, sinkholes and coastal erosion has emerged striking images of three mansions atop the cliffs of Dana Point — stubbornly clinging to the precipice.
Lewis Bruggeman, owner of the multimillion-dollar house nearest to the landslide, has told reporters that his house is stable despite its perilous appearance, while city officials insist the home is firmly anchored to bedrock.
But an executive with an engineering firm that inspected the property after the slide said future rainstorms are “going to continue to eat away at the slopes.”
“That’s going to need major, major work to stabilize that property,” Kyle Tourjé, executive vice president of Alpha Structural, a Los Angeles-based engineering firm that specializes in soil and structural work, told the Post.
Tourjé said his firm has responded for emergency assessments and repairs for more than 60 landslides over the past week in Southern California.
“We’re seeing more damage, and I think we will continue to see more significant damage,” he said. “Between back-to-back years of heavy saturation, these houses, these properties … they just can’t take this kind of beating.”
The land has shifted and slumped, damaging homes and causing water and gas pipe leaks. Crews have worked to fill in fissures, while engineers have described the movement as unprecedented.
“Areas that were only moving in inches are now moving in feet per year,” Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor John Cruikshank told the Post.
The upscale city has confronted landslides for decades, but two rainy winters have accelerated the movement.
In recent months, two homes have been red-tagged — deemed unsafe for occupancy — and the city closed eight miles of trails because of safety issues from open fissures, according to the mayor. Wayfarers Chapel, a famous ocean-view wedding spot known as the “glass church,” also closed earlier this month because of the shifting dirt.
“Clearly with that much glass above the temple area and being so precarious, you just can’t leave that open,” Cruikshank said. “That would be way, way too dangerous.”
Cruikshank said the city will ask Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a state of emergency for Rancho Palos Verdes.
The latest storm slammed counties along the coast with more than 10 inches of rain over three days in some places, including hilly areas that have already been soaked by earlier downpours.
Alpha Structural officials said they visited the Scenic Drive landslide site in Dana Point at Bruggeman’s request. The firm said it couldn’t provide a detailed report on its assessment or recommendations for the Orange County home.
Tourjé blames much of the problem to development decades ago under insufficient building and grading codes.
Residents also make problems worse, he said, by directing roof downspouts or pool runoff pipes onto vulnerable slopes.He and his colleagues have been racing to Malibu beachfront homes with the sand below them scoured away, train lines wiped out by landslides, homes knocked down, swimming pools filled with mud.
“It seems to be getting progressively worse, year after year,” Tourjé told the newspaper.
Another atmospheric river is soaking California with historic amounts of rain and flooding. CBS News senior national and environmental correspondent Ben Tracy joins to explain how climate change is affecting these devastating and often deadly storms.
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The remnants of Tropical Storm Ophelia were lashing the Northeast with rain and wind on Monday. The Weather Channel meteorologist Alex Wilson takes a look at more storms impacting the East Coast.
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Saint Bernard, Louisiana — Max Begue loves almost everything about living in coastal Louisiana, but hurricane season brings back memories of Katrina in 2005, when his home and neighborhood were washed away, almost as if they never existed.
“We all did,” Begue told CBS News when asked if he considered leaving after Katrina. “And a lot of people left. But I chose to stay.”
He also chose a geodesic dome for his new house, made of more than 300 interwoven triangles which disperse the wind’s pressure.
“I built the dome because I didn’t want to go through the process of losing another house,” Begue explained.
The dome home is able to withstand winds topping 200 mph. It makes it, essentially, hurricane-proof.
“They thought I was a kook,” Begue said of people’s reactions when he told them he was building a dome home.
That is not the case anymore. The spherical home is also energy-efficient because surface area is minimized. Begue’s electric bills are usually less than $100 a month, about a third of what his neighbors pay.
Domes have long been a part of American architecture, built for their resiliency. Famous examples include the world’s first domed stadium, the Houston Astrodome, and the majestic iron dome of the U.S. Capitol.
“We really want to be able to show how geodesic domes are not just stable and resilient, but they are also imminently efficient, and portable, and practical,” said Abeer Saha, curator at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
Dome-shaped buildings made of concrete can withstand wildfires, floods and earthquakes. Their shape also allows them to disperse tremendous weight without collapsing. Construction costs are generally higher, but so is the chance of survival.
“We’re absolutely not thinking enough about the role of housing and structures in climate change,” Saha said.
As part of a focus on extreme weather, the Smithsonian recently re-assembled Weatherbreak — the first geodesic dome built in North America — after four decades in storage. It was first built in 1950 in Montreal, Canada.
Janet Shamlian is a CBS News correspondent based in Houston, Texas. Shamlian’s reporting is featured on all CBS News broadcasts and platforms including “CBS Mornings,” the “CBS Evening News” and the CBS News Streaming Network, CBS News’ premier 24/7 anchored streaming news service.
More than 6,000 flights were delayed and another 1,400 canceled Monday night as thunderstorms threaten more than 104 million Americans. The most severe storms are expected into Tuesday morning. CBS News correspondent Meg Oliver has more on the damage we’re already seeing.
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At least eight tornadoes ripped through Oklahoma Thursday night. In the town of Cole, at least 10 structures were damaged, and a tornado tore the roof off a donut shop near Oklahoma City. Roxana Saberi has more.
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Corcoran, California — California’s Central Valley produces a quarter of the nation’s food, but a parade of atmospheric rivers this winter caused severe storms that destroyed thousands of acres of crops.
The storms, which have been linked to climate change, swamped 150,000 acres in the region, according to numbers from Kings County officials.
About 99% of the nation’s pistachio supply is grown in Central California, per data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Pistachio farmer Nader Malakan estimates that about 1,200 acres of pistachio crops were destroyed, to the tune of $15 million.
“It’s going to hurt,” he told CBS News. “It’s a lot of money.”
A view of rows of flooded pistachio trees from the reemerging Tulare Lake, in California’s Central Valley on April 27, 2023, near Corcoran, California.
Getty Images
The flood damage in Kings County this winter is estimated to have caused $1 billion in losses, county officials said.
Perched outside Corcoran, Tulare Lake, which was drained a century ago — and still didn’t even exist a few months ago — has returned with a vengeance and looks like an ocean. In the mountains above, one of California’s largest snowpacks on record is starting to melt. According to forecasters, high temperatures in the coming weeks could prove catastrophic.
“You kind of get an overwhelming sense of doom in a way,” said Lakeshore Dairy farmer Brandon Goedhardt. “How do you stop this?”
In March, flooding forced thousands of people to evacuate the Northern California agricultural community of Pajaro, after the Pajaro River’s levee was breached.
Goedhardt and other farmers are using massive piles of dirt to reinforce and add onto a nearly 15-mile-long levee designed to hold back the rising tide. While the farmers said they are receiving some assistance from FEMA agents on the ground, they are the ones footing the bill.
Goedhardt said there is nowhere safe enough, or large enough, to move his barn of cows.
Kings County Supervisor Doug Verbund said crews will finish the levee before the next major melt, but there is no guarantee it will hold.
“Mother Nature is in control,” Verbund said. “We’re just, you know, tying to put our finger in the dike as we go.”
Goedhardt said it is all hands on deck this week, but their hearts are sinking.
“We’re a family farm,” Goedhardt said. “You know the families have been doing this for generations, and I’d hate to be the one at the wheel, and we lose it all.”
People still sorting through the wreckage of their homes after deadly weather hit over the weekend braced for another wave of strong storms, including tornadoes, that began rolling into parts of the Midwest and South beginning Tuesday evening. Officials warned residents to have shelter ready before going to sleep.
“This could be a night to just set up down in the basement to be safe,” said Tom Philip, a meteorologist in Davenport, Iowa.
The National Weather Service on Tuesday evening began issuing tornado warnings in Iowa and Illinois and said a confirmed twister was spotted southwest of Chicago near Bryant, Illinois. No damage was immediately reported.
A tornado was also reported near the town of Pleasantville, Iowa, the NWS said. Footage obtained by CBS News showed what appeared to be a twister spinning near Pleasantville.
What appears to be a twister spinning near Pleasantville, Iowa, on April 4, 2023.
Travis Kono/Storyful
There were no major power outages as of late Tuesday night, according to the utility tracking website PowerOutage.us.
The storms were expected to hammer some areas already hit by severe weather — and possibly dozens of tornadoes — just days ago that killed at least 33 people, meaning more misery for those whose homes were destroyed in Arkansas, Iowa and Illinois. Dangerous conditions also could stretch into parts of Missouri, southwestern Oklahoma and northeastern Texas. Farther south and west, fire danger remained high.
Ryan Bunker, a meteorologist with the National Weather Center in Norman, Oklahoma, predicted that Tuesday’s storm system could start as isolated supercells — with possible tornadoes, wind and hail — and “form into a line (of thunderstorms) and continue moving eastward.”
Earlier Tuesday, strong thunderstorms swept through the Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois with winds up to 90 mph and baseball size hail. No injuries were reported but trees were downed and some businesses were damaged in Moline, Illinois.
The weather service and Illinois Emergency Management also said a tornado touched down Tuesday morning in the western Illinois community of Colona.
The Colona Police Department said the storm damaged a Shell Gas station and a building behind it. There were no injuries, the police department said, but two people were evacuated from the Shell station.
Storm damage in Colona, Illinois. April 4, 2023.
Colona Police Department
Northern Illinois, from Moline to Chicago, saw 75-80 mph winds and hail 2 to 3 inches in diameter on Tuesday afternoon, National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Baker said. The agency received reports of semi trucks tipped over by winds in Lee County, about 95 miles west of Chicago.
The tornado risk in the Upper Midwest was expected to be highest in the evening and late night Tuesday with storms targeting northern Illinois, eastern Iowa and southwest Wisconsin. Areas of southern Missouri and Arkansas were most at risk overnight.
In Keokuk County, Iowa, where 19 homes were destroyed and more were damaged Friday, emergency management official Marissa Reisen worried how those cleaning up the damage will cope if another storm hits.
“All of the people who have been impacted by the storms Friday night are doing all this work, to clean up, to gather their stuff, to pile up the debris,” Reisen said. “If a storm comes through and hits them again and throws all that hard work all over the place again, it will be so deflating to those people.”
Severe storms could produce strong tornadoes and large hail Wednesday across eastern Illinois and lower Michigan and in the Ohio Valley, including Indiana and Ohio, according to the Storm Prediction Center. The weather threat extends southwestward across parts of Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee and Arkansas.
The fierce storms that started Friday and continued into the weekend spawned deadly tornadoes in 11 states as the system plodded through Arkansas and onto the South, Midwest and Northeast.
The same conditions that fueled those storms — an area of low pressure combined with strong southerly winds — were setting up the severe weather Tuesday into early Wednesday, Bunker said.
Those conditions, which typically include dry air from the West going up over the Rockies and crashing into warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, are what make the U.S. so prone to tornadoes and other severe storms.
Dramatic temperature changes were expected, with Tuesday highs of 74 in Des Moines and 86 in Kansas City plunging overnight to 40 or colder overnight. In Little Rock, Arkansas, the high of 89 on Tuesday tied the record for the date set in 1880.
A blizzard warning was in effect for nearly all of North Dakota and most of South Dakota through at least Wednesday night. The National Weather Service predicted parts of South Dakota could see up to 16 inches of snow and wind gusts as high as 55 mph.
Dozens of schools in South Dakota closed Tuesday due to blizzard conditions. State executive branch offices were also closed in much of the state.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum signed off on $20 million Tuesday for emergency snow removal grants to localities. Officials reminded residents to check on neighbors and keep their homes stocked with food, water and medicine, have battery-powered radios in case of power outages and ensure gas meters and furnace vents are clear of snow.
In Minnesota, a winter storm warning was in effect in the north, while the southern part of the state expected thunderstorms that could include hail and strong winds. The expected weather led the Minnesota Twins to delay their Major League Baseball home opener from Thursday to Friday.
Fire danger persisted across portions of far western Oklahoma, the Texas Panhandle, northeastern New Mexico and far southeastern Colorado, with low humidity, dry vegetation and high wind gusts. Officials issued a fire warning for Custer County in western Oklahoma and urged some residents near the town of Weatherford to evacuate their homes because of a wildfire.
A monster storm system tore through the South and Midwest on Friday — and then hit the Northeast on Saturday — spawning deadly tornadoes that shredded homes and shopping centers in Arkansas, and collapsed a theater roof during a heavy metal concert in Illinois. In total, at least 26 weather-related deaths have been reported across eight states, according to the latest numbers compiled Saturday by CBS News, and tens of thousands of customers were without power.
At least nine storm-related deaths were reported in McNairy County, Tennessee, the McNairy County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to CBS News Saturday night.
In Tennessee’s Tipton County, one weather-related fatality and 28 injuries were blamed on the storm, according to Tipton County Sheriff Shannon Beasley.
On Saturday evening, at least one person was killed when a suspected tornado caused a structure to collapse near the Delaware town of Greenwood, the Sussex County government reported.
Bethany DeBussy, a town manager for nearby Bridgeville, Delaware, told CBS News in an email that there were multiple reports of vehicle accidents and entrapments, downed power lines and gas leaks. DeBussy could not immediately confirm if there were any injuries.
Near Huntsville, Alabama, a 90-year-old woman died inside her home after it was destroyed by a tornado, Don Webster, a spokesman with Huntsville Emergency Medical Services told CBS News.
The town of Wynne in northeastern Arkansas was also devastated. The town’s coroner told CBS News there were four people dead there. Officials also said there were people trapped in the debris of destroyed homes. More than two dozen were hurt, some critically, in the Little Rock area, authorities said. One weather-related death was reported in North Little Rock, according to Madeline Roberts, a spokesperson for the Pulaski County Emergency Management Agency.
Sullivan County, Indiana’s emergency management director Jim Pirtle told CBS News that there had been three deaths there.
A theater roof collapsed during a tornado in Belvidere, Illinois, killing a 50-year-old man and injuring about 40 others, officials said in a news briefing Saturday. 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.
The collapse occurred at the Apollo Theatre during a heavy metal concert in the town located about 70 miles northwest of Chicago.
Two of the injured had life-threatening injuries, two had severe injuries, 18 had milder injuries, and five had minor injuries, Belvidere Fire Chief Shawn Schadle said Saturday.
Authorities work the scene at the Apollo Theatre after a severe spring storm caused damage and injuries during a concert, late Friday, March 31, 2023, in Belvidere, Ill.
Matt Marton / AP
Three people were killed when a residential structure collapsed in Crawford County, Alicia Tate-Nadeau, director of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, confirmed to CBS News.
A 13-year-old girl in Warren Township, Ohio, was killed Saturday afternoon when a large oak tree fell onto her home, trapping her under the rubble, according to the Warren Township Police Department.
Firefighters were delayed in reaching the girl due to the extensive damage, which made the structure unstable, police said. She died at the scene. Warren Township is about 50 miles east of Cleveland.
One weather-related death and four injuries occurred in Pontotoc County Friday, according to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.
The destructive weather came as President Biden earlier Friday toured the aftermath of the tornado that struck Mississippi one week ago, killing at least 21 people. Mr. Biden promised the government would help the area recover.
As of Saturday night, more than 201,000 customers in Pennsylvania were without power, according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us. More than 109,000 were without power in Ohio, along with another 94,000 in Virginia, 51,000 in West Virginia and 46,000 in North Carolina.
Meanwhile, 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.
A home is damaged and trees are down after a tornado swept through Little Rock, Ark., Friday, March 31, 2023.
Andrew DeMillo / AP
Baptist Health Medical Center-Little Rock officials told KATV Friday 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 Friday evening that property damage was extensive and “we are still responding.”
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.
At Clinton National Airport, passengers and workers sheltered temporarily in bathrooms.
About 50 miles west of Memphis, Tennessee, the small city of Wynne, Arkansas, saw widespread tornado damage, Sanders confirmed.
Homes are damaged after a tornado swept through Coralville, Iowa, Friday, March 31, 2023.
Ryan Foley / AP
City Councilmember Lisa Powell Carter told AP 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.”
One tornado veered just west of Iowa City, home to the University of Iowa. 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.
In neighboring Oklahoma, 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.
A car is upturned in a Kroger parking lot after a severe storm swept through Little Rock, Ark., Friday, March 31, 2023.
Andrew DeMillo / AP
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. More than 109,000 customers had lost power in the state as of Friday night.
Fire crews battled 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.
The weather service is forecasting another batch of intense storms next Tuesday in the same general area as last week.
At least one person was killed when a tornado struck Delaware Saturday evening, officials said, part of a massive storm system which had already produced several deadly tornadoes in the Midwest and South on Friday before taking aim at the Northeast. Tens of thousands of customers were also without power.
The weather-related fatality occurred when a suspected tornado caused a structure to collapse near the Delaware town of Greenwood, the Sussex County government reported. Sussex County also posted cell phone video of a funnel cloud moving through the area at about 6 p.m. local time.
Greenwood is located about 25 miles south of Dover.
Bethany DeBussy, a town manager for nearby Bridgeville, Delaware, told CBS News in an email that there were multiple reports of vehicle accidents and entrapments, downed power lines and gas leaks. DeBussy could not confirm if there were any injuries.
Storm damage in Bridgeville, Delaware, after a suspected tornado hit the area. April 1, 2023.
Ineishia Corbett
The National Weather Service had issued a severe thunderstorm watch Saturday evening for parts of New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York, including New York City.
In total, at least 24 deaths have been blamed on the massive storm system, which caused multiple tornadoes in the Midwest and South on Friday before turning its attention to the Northeast on Saturday. The deaths were reported across eight states, according to the latest numbers compiled Saturday by CBS News, including Illinois, Tennessee, Arkansas, Indiana, Alabama, Ohio and Mississippi.
During a heavy metal concert Friday night, a theater roof collapsed during a tornado in Belvidere, Illinois, killing a 50-year-old man and injuring about 40 others.
Earlier in the day Friday, President Biden toured the damage from a tornado last week which left at least 21 people dead in Mississippi.
As of Saturday night, more than 201,000 customers in Pennsylvania were without power, according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us. More than 109,000 were without power in Ohio, along with another 94,000 in Virginia, 51,000 in West Virginia and 46,000 in North Carolina.
A monster storm system tore through the South and Midwest on Friday, spawning deadly tornadoes that shredded homes and shopping centers in Arkansas, and collapsing a theater roof during a heavy metal concert in Illinois. In total, at least 21 weather-related deaths have been reported across six states, according to the latest numbers compiled Saturday by CBS News.
Seven people were killed in McNairy County, Tennessee Mayor Larry W. Smith told CBS News on Saturday. The mayor has declared a state of emergency for McNairy County. Near Huntsville, Alabama, a 90-year-old woman died inside her home after it was destroyed by a tornado, Don Webster, a spokesman with Huntsville Emergency Medical Services told CBS News.
The town of Wynne in northeastern Arkansas was also devastated. The town’s coroner told CBS News there were four people dead there. Officials also said there were people trapped in the debris of destroyed homes. More than two dozen were hurt, some critically, in the Little Rock area, authorities said. One weather-related death was reported in North Little Rock, according to Madeline Roberts, a spokesperson for the Pulaski County Emergency Management Agency.
Sullivan County, Indiana’s emergency management director Jim Pirtle told CBS News that there had been three deaths there.
Authorities said a theater roof collapsed during a tornado in Belvidere, Illinois, killing a 50-year-old man and injuring about 40 others, officials said in a news briefing Saturday. 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.
The collapse occurred at the Apollo Theatre during a heavy metal concert in the town located about 70 miles northwest of Chicago.
Two of the injured had life-threatening injuries, two had severe injuries, 18 had milder injuries, and five had minor injuries, Belvidere Fire Chief Shawn Schadle said Saturday.
Authorities work the scene at the Apollo Theatre after a severe spring storm caused damage and injuries during a concert, late Friday, March 31, 2023, in Belvidere, Ill.
Matt Marton / AP
Three people were killed when a residential structure collapsed in Crawford County, Alicia Tate-Nadeau, director of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, confirmed to CBS News.
One weather-related death and four injuries occurred in Pontotoc County Friday, according to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.
The destructive weather came as President Biden earlier Friday toured the aftermath of the tornado that struck Mississippi one week ago, killing at least 21 people. Mr. Biden promised the government would help the area recover.
As of Saturday evening, more than 235,000 customers in Ohio were without power, according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us. More than 275,000 were without power in Pennsylvania, and another 93,000 in Tennessee, along with 73,000 in West Virginia and 53,000 in Kentucky.
Meanwhile, 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.
A home is damaged and trees are down after a tornado swept through Little Rock, Ark., Friday, March 31, 2023.
Andrew DeMillo / AP
Baptist Health Medical Center-Little Rock officials told KATV Friday 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 Friday evening that property damage was extensive and “we are still responding.”
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.
At Clinton National Airport, passengers and workers sheltered temporarily in bathrooms.
About 50 miles west of Memphis, Tennessee, the small city of Wynne, Arkansas, saw widespread tornado damage, Sanders confirmed.
Homes are damaged after a tornado swept through Coralville, Iowa, Friday, March 31, 2023.
Ryan Foley / AP
City Councilmember Lisa Powell Carter told AP 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.”
The unrelenting tornadoes continued spawning and touching down in the area into the night.
The police department in Covington, Tennessee, said on Facebook that the west Tennessee city was impassable after power lines and trees fell on roads when the storm passed through Friday evening. Authorities in Tipton County, north of Memphis, said a tornado appeared to have touched down near the middle school in Covington and in other locations in the rural county.
Tipton County Sheriff Shannon Beasley said on Facebook that homes and structures were severely damaged.
Tornadoes moved through parts of eastern Iowa, with sporadic damage.
One tornado veered just west of Iowa City, home to the University of Iowa. 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.
In neighboring Oklahoma, 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.
A car is upturned in a Kroger parking lot after a severe storm swept through Little Rock, Ark., Friday, March 31, 2023.
Andrew DeMillo / AP
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. More than 109,000 customers had lost power in the state as of Friday night.
Fire crews battled 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.
The weather service is forecasting another batch of intense storms next Tuesday in the same general area as last week.
One man was killed and several dozen people hurt when the roof of a theater in Belvidere, Illinois, collapsed Friday night amid powerful winds, part of a massive storm system that hit multiple states.
Video from CBS Chicago showed debris lying in the street outside the Apollo Theatre, with firefighters and ambulances on scene. Cell phone video captured the damage from inside the structure.
A 50-year-old man was killed and about 40 others were injured, officials said in a news briefing Saturday. 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. local time. It said that an initial assessment was that a tornado had caused the damage.
The collapse occurred at the Apollo Theatre during a heavy metal concert in the town located about 70 miles northwest of Chicago.
Two of the injured had life-threatening injuries, two had severe injuries, 18 had milder injuries, and five had minor injuries, Belvidere Fire Chief Shawn Schadle said Saturday.
There were upwards of 200 people in the building at the time of the collapse, Schadle disclosed.
At the scene of where the roof of the Apollo Theatre in Belvidere, Illinois, collapsed amid a powerful storm which hit the region. March 31, 2023.
CBS Chicago
Schadle said Friday that first responders also rescued someone from an elevator and had to grapple with downed power lines outside the theater.
Belvidere Police Chief Shane Woody described the scene after the collapse as “chaos, absolute chaos.”
The bands Morbid Angel, Revocation and Skeletal Remains were holding a concert at the venue Friday night, according to Apollo’s website. It’s unclear which of the bands were playing when the collapse occurred. Morbid Angel later posted on its Facebook page that the show was canceled “due to a tornado that hit the venue.”
“My administration is closely monitoring the roof collapse at the Apollo Theatre in Belvidere tonight,” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker tweeted.
The monster storm system which tore through the South and Midwest on Friday spawned tornadoes which left at least 21 people dead across six states. Along with Illinois, Tennessee, Arkansas, Indiana, Mississippi and Alabama also had weather-related fatalities.
The destructive weather came as President Biden earlier Friday toured the aftermath of a deadly tornado that struck in Mississippi one week ago and promised the government would help the area recover.
