Nine killed as severe storms hit central US

A powerful storm system that ripped across the central US Friday killed nine people, including three children. The storms left numerous communities in eastern Oklahoma and across Arkansas with downed power lines, damaged roofs and hazardous driving conditions because of snapped power poles and trees on the roads.
Governor Mike Beebe says two deaths in Little Rock have pushed the death toll from violent weather in Arkansas to seven. Many of the victims were killed by trees falling on homes in the middle of the night. In Oklahoma, a tornado killed two elderly sisters at Tushka. The violent weather was part of a complex of storms that hit the central and southern US late Thursday and early Friday.