Four dead as severe storm sweeps through southern US

BENTON, Louisiana (AP) — Authorities say at least four people have died as severe storms sweep across parts of the United States South, bringing high winds and unrelenting rain.

The Bossier Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana said on Facebook that firefighters found the bodies of an elderly couple Saturday near their demolished trailer.

The winds were so strong that the home was moved 200 feet from its foundation.

The deaths of the victims, who were the in-laws of a parish deputy, brings the storm-related toll in the state to three after a man was killed when a tree fell on his home in Caddo Parish on Friday.

Bossier Parish Sheriff Julian Whittington told The Associated Press that a truck driver and a Benton police officer had a close call after being shocked by a downed power line.

“A power line was hanging across the road and a eighteen wheeler truck ran into it and got hung up in it and the Benton officer got there to help him,” Whittington said. Both were expected to survive.

Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas on Saturday morning were clear of the severe thunderstorms that had passed through the night before.

One person died Friday night in Texas when a car flipped into a creek in Dallas. Additionally, lightning from Friday’s stormy weather is suspected of causing two house fires in the North Texas cities of Burleson and Mansfield.

Officials said no one was injured.

Homes were damaged or destroyed in Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas on Friday, but no injuries were reported.

Downed trees and power lines were widespread.

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