![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6977430.1721929538!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.jpg)
'There's mom and dad's house': New video appears to show destruction of Jasper neighbourhood
Video posted to social media on Thursday morning appears to show the charred remains of a Jasper, Alta., neighbourhood.
A series of powerful storms swept over the central and southern U.S. over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, killing at least 21 people and leaving a wide trail of destroyed homes, businesses and power outages.
The destructive storms caused deaths in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kentucky and were just north of an oppressive, early season heat wave setting records from south Texas to Florida.
Forecasters said the severe weather could shift to the East Coast later Monday and warned millions of people outdoors for the holiday to watch the skies.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who earlier declared a state of emergency, said at a Monday press conference that four people had died in four different counties.
The death toll of 21 also included seven deaths in Cooke County, Texas, from a Saturday tornado that tore through a mobile home park, officials said, and eight deaths across Arkansas.
Two people died in Mayes County, Oklahoma, which is east of Tulsa, authorities said. The injured included guests at an outdoor wedding.
The latest community left with shattered homes and no power was the tiny Kentucky community of Charleston, which took a direct hit Sunday night from a tornado that the governor said appeared to be on the ground for 40 miles (64 kilometres).
"It's a big mess," said Rob Linton, who lives in Charleston and is the fire chief of nearby Dawson Springs, hit by a tornado in 2021. "Trees down everywhere. Houses moved. Power lines are down. No utilities whatsoever -- no water, no power."
Destroyed homes are seen after a deadly tornado rolled through the previous night, Sunday, May 26, 2024, in Valley View, Texas. (Julio Cortez / AP Photo)
Further east, some rural areas of Hopkins County hit by the 2021 tornado around the community of Barnsley were damaged again Sunday night, said county Emergency Management Director Nick Bailey.
"There were a lot of people that were just getting their lives put back together and then this," Bailey said. "Almost the same spot, the same houses and everything."
Beshear has traveled to the area where his father grew up several times for ceremonies where people who lost everything were given the keys to their new homes.
Severe storm clouds move across the northwest edge of Davenport, Iowa on Friday, May 24, 2024. (Roy Dabner/Quad City Times via AP)
The visits came after a series of tornadoes on a terrifying night in December 2021 killed 81 people in Kentucky.
"It could have been much worse," Beshear said of the Memorial Day weekend storms. "The people of Kentucky are very weather aware with everything we've been through."
More than 500,000 customers across the eastern U.S. were without power Monday afternoon, including about 170,000 in Kentucky. Twelve states reported at least 10,000 outages, according to PowerOutage.us.
The area on highest alert for severe weather Monday is a broad swath of the eastern U.S., from Alabama to New York.
U.S. President Joe Biden sent condolences to the families who had people killed. He said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is on the ground conducting damage assessments and he has contacted governors to see what federal support they might need.
It's been a grim month of tornadoes and severe weather in the nation's midsection.
Tornadoes in Iowa last week left at least five people dead and dozens injured. Storms killed eight people in Houston earlier this month. The severe thunderstorms and deadly twisters have spawned during a historically bad season for tornadoes, at a time when climate change contributes to the severity of storms around the world. April had the second-highest number of tornadoes on record in the country.
A weather advisory is posted and fans have been asked to clear the stands as storm clouds move in over the Indianapolis Motor Speedway forcing a delay for the Indianapolis 500 auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Sunday, May 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Harold Brooks, a senior scientist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, said a persistent pattern of warm, moist air is to blame for the string of tornadoes over the past two months.
That warm moist air is at the northern edge of a heat dome bringing temperatures typically seen at the height of summer to late May.
The heat index -- a combination of air temperature and humidity to indicate how the heat feels to the human body -- is expected to reach 120 degrees Fahrenheit (49 degrees Celsius) in parts of south Texas on Monday. Record highs are forecast for Brownsville, San Antonio and Dallas.
Miami set a record high of 96 F (35.5 C) on Sunday.
To follow the progress of the storm system, see The Associated Press Tornado Tracker.
------
Schreiner reported from Louisville, Kentucky. Associated Press reporters Acacia Coronado in Austin, Texas, and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.
Video posted to social media on Thursday morning appears to show the charred remains of a Jasper, Alta., neighbourhood.
Officials from Parks Canada and Jasper say "multiple structures, including a number of businesses and homes, in and around the town of Jasper, have been lost" to wildfire in Jasper National Park.
Newly released financial reports show that William, the Prince of Wales, drew a salary of $42.1 million last fiscal year, his first since inheriting the vast and lucrative Duchy of Cornwall.
Jennifer Aniston is criticizing JD Vance for comments he made in his past about women without children.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says early reports indicate a third and perhaps up to half of all buildings in the historic Rocky Mountain resort town of Jasper have been destroyed in a wildfire.
Already more than a month late getting back, two NASA astronauts will remain at the International Space Station until engineers finish working on problems plaguing their Boeing capsule, officials said Thursday.
'Skibidi Toilet' is already an internet sensation and now its about to get even more exposure after the YouTube series is being developed for TV and film, according to a report by Variety.
French sprinter Sounkamba Sylla will be allowed to participate in the opening ceremony at the Paris Olympics wearing a cap to cover her hair, an agreement reached with the French Olympic Committee after Sylla said she was barred because of her hijab.
A former PepsiCo executive is suing the company, saying it destroyed his career after questioning his claim that he invented the popular flavor of Cheetos snacks.
A Saskatchewan-born veteran of the Second World War was recently presented with France's highest national order.
A local First Nations elder and veteran is helping to bring the Ojibwe language to a well-known film for the first time.
A cat who fled her Montreal home nearly a decade ago has been reunited with her family after being found in Ottawa.
A woman in Waterloo, Ont. is out thousands of dollars for a car crash she wasn’t involved in.
A swarm of bees living in a lamppost in Winnipeg’s Sage Creek neighbourhood has found a new home for its hive.
Around 100 acres of Manitoba Crown Land near the Saskatchewan border is being returned to the Métis community.
Nova Scotia is suspending the licensed Cape Breton moose hunt for three years due to what the province is calling a “significant drop” in the population.
A well-known childhood prank known as 'nicky nicky nine doors,' or 'ding dong ditch,' has escalated into a more serious game that could lead to charges for some Surrey, B.C. teens.
It's been more than a month since their good friend was seriously hurt in an accident and two teens from Riverview, N.B., are still having a hard time dealing with it.