Drone footage captures damage left by last night's deadly tornado in Arkansas

YouTube/Brian Emfinger

Drone footage captures damage left by last night's deadly tornado in Arkansas
(Image credit: YouTube/Brian Emfinger)

More than 30 tornadoes tore through several states in the Plains and mid-South last night, killing at least 17 people and destroying hundreds of homes and buildings.

Arkansas, where at least 16 were killed, was the state hit hardest by the storms. In the northwestern Little Rock suburbs of Mayflower and Vilonia alone, at least 10 people lost their lives and 150 homes were destroyed.

"What I'm seeing is something that I cannot describe in words," Sheriff Andy Shock told NBC News. "It is utter and sheer devastation."

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After a half-mile wide tornado ripped through the area, a drone captured the sheer magnitude of the damage left in its wake:

The strong band of storms that caused the tornado are moving east today, putting more states, including Louisiana, Ohio, and the Carolinas, on high alert for severe weather.

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Jordan Valinsky is the lead writer for Speed Reads. Before joining The Week, he wrote for New York Observer's tech blog, Betabeat, and tracked the intersection between popular culture and the internet for The Daily Dot. He graduated with a degree in online journalism from Ohio University.