Tornadoes carve swathe of destruction across Arkansas

the devastating power of a tornado smashed trees cars knocked down houses lost under rubble residents here are just grateful to be alive as neighbors who ran to make sure everyone was okay and after seeing my neighbor's house completely destroyed I was just grateful man I didn't care about materials at that time. I was just grateful to be alive. Shoppers in Little Rock were caught off guard by the storm. The roof was ripped off the local supermarket as they sheltered inside the only way we knew the tornado was approaching. Someone said run back, me and these two ladies here ran back, huddled together and prayed for our lives further north, in Belvedere, Illinois, at least one person was killed and dozens were injured when the theater roof collapsed, hundreds were inside.

Attending a sold-out concert, more

tornadoes

took a deadly path through the Midwest and southern United States. Hundreds of thousands were left without power in Illinois, Arkansas and Tennessee. Such was the scale of the

destruction

that the governor of Arkansas declared a state of emergency. We are resilient and no matter what comes our way, we will get up the next day and keep moving, we will help our neighbors, we will make sure that every Arkansas that needs help gets our message and our mission is really simple, people come first and Paperwork will take a backseat and as devastated communities begin to rebuild their lives, they must do so knowing that even more dangerous storms are forecast for the coming days Matthew Thompson Sky News