2 young brothers among at least 42 deaths as tornadoes swept US
The Leviskia brothers were 11 and 13 years old when a tree fell on their home.
In the moments before a tornado destroyed her family's Arkansas home, Misty Drope noticed the silence.
"There's a silence that happens before a strong storm hits you," Drope told ABC's "Good Morning America" in an interview on Monday. "And I said, 'Oh no, this is not good.'"
She and her family -- Bruce and Keely Drope -- were standing outside what was left of their home in Paragould. The tornado that tore through the town over the weekend was the second to touch their neighborhood in less than a year.
"You're so thankful you're alive," Bruce Drope said.
Looking at a photo of their destroyed home, Keely Drope pointed out the corner of the house she and her family took shelter in and noted that it was the only area of the residence where the roof was still intact.
"In that photo, it literally looked like God just had his hand right there over us because that's the only part that has the roof left," Keely Drope said.
At least 42 people were killed amid more than 970 severe storm reports across more than two dozen states over the weekend. A three-day tornado outbreak tore through at least nine states.
In Missouri, 12 people were killed in tornadoes that touched down. In Kansas, another eight people perished, while Mississippi reported six storm-related deaths.
Severe storms, including tornadoes, killed four people in Texas, four in Oklahoma, three in Arkansas and three in Alabama.
2 children killed
In North Carolina, two children -- ages 11 and 13 -- were killed early Saturday when a tree uprooted by a storm fell on their single-wide mobile home in the town of Brevard, Transylvania County, authorities said. Connestee Fire Rescue Chief Matthew C. Owen said in a Facebook post that the tree fell on the bedroom that 11-year-old Joshua Leviskia and his 13-year-old brother, Josiah, were in.
"When Connestee Fire Rescue firefighters arrived, they located a single-wide trailer with an approximately 3-foot-diameter uprooted tree through the center of the trailer," Owen said in the post. "The surviving members of this family indicated there were two children trapped in their bedroom."
Firefighters found the brothers dead under the tree and other debris, the agency said. Five other people who lived in the residence were not injured, the agency said.
A tornado rated by the National Weather Service as an EF-2 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale tore through Tylertown, Mississippi, with wind speeds up to 111 mph, Owen told ABC News. It killed at least three people, officials said.
Many of the cabins at Paradise Ranch RV Resort in Tylertown were reduced to rubble as the tornado tore through, leaving behind a mangled mess of tree branches and building materials. But the campground's manager told "GMA" that there were no deaths reported there, in part because most of the cabins were empty.
Next week, about 250 campers were expected to show up, the manager said.
EF-3 tornado wreaks havoc in Alabama
The NWS confirmed that an EF-3 tornado packing winds between 136 mph and 165 mph touched down in the small community of Plantersville, Alabama, about 41 miles northwest of Montgomery, destroying homes and mowing down pine trees or turning them into projectiles that penetrate roofs and walls of homes.
Anita Ownes told ABC affiliate station WBMA in Birmingham that her mother was killed when a twister destroyed her Plantersville home. Ownes said her mother's body was located about 350 yards from her destroyed residence.
She said her uncle, who lives in the same neighborhood as her mother, was hospitalized with injuries from the tornado.
"To be honest, you wouldn't think just wind and tornadoes would do this much devastation," a tearful Ownes said as she surveyed the splintered wood, cracked cinderblocks and twisted metal strewn across the Plantersville.
Asked about her mother, Ownes said, "I don't really know what to tell you right now about mom except she loved everybody."
School bus hurled into gym
In Winterboro, Alabama, about 60 miles southeast of Birmingham, a tornado, which the NWS rated as an EF-2, ripped through the community, destroying homes and damaging the high school. The twister, packing winds of 120 mph, was strong enough to lift a school bus and hurtle it into the Winterboro gym.
The Talladega County Coroner identified the one person who died in the tornado that hit Winterboro as 83-year-old Harry Leon Fain, who authorities said lived in a mobile home across the street from Winterboro High School.
"Everybody knew him. He was a real nice fellow," Luther Lackey, second assistant chief at the Winterboro Volunteer Fire Department, said of Fain in an interview with WBMA. "He came to the fire station four hours early to make sure the storm shelters were open."
Lackey said Fain told firefighters he was going home but planned to return to one of the storm shelters.
"Four hours later, they had to try to find him," Lackey said.
Powerful winds also fanned wildfires that erupted over the weekend, destroying nearly 400 homes near Norman, Oklahoma, officials said. At least four people were killed in the fires and heavy winds, according to the state's office of the chief medical examiner.
According to the Oklahoma State Department of Health, 142 injuries related to the wildfires were reported to state hospitals.
While the threat of more tornadoes has subsided in the Great Plains, fire danger remains elevated Monday in the region. Red Flag fire danger warnings were issued for parts of Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. On Tuesday, extreme fire danger is expected for West Texas and New Mexico, officials said.