At least 14 dead from storms in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kentucky
severe weather over the holiday weekend.
In Indiana, storms delayed Sunday's scheduled start of the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, or Indy 500, the premier U.S. auto racing event traditionally held over the Memorial Day weekend.
At least seven people perished and nearly 100 were injured on Saturday night when a powerful tornado struck communities in north Texas near the Oklahoma border, Governor Greg Abbott said at a news conference the next day.
He said two children, aged 2 and 5 from a single family, were among the dead in and around the tiny Cooke County town of Valley View, which bore the brunt of the twister.
More than 200 homes and other structures were listed as destroyed, with another 120 buildings damaged in a zone that stretched over 50 miles, Abbott said.
Dozens of motorists abandoned their vehicles on a highway and fled to a nearby truck stop seeking shelter as the twister struck. According to Abbott, about 125 people took cover inside the gasoline station as the tornado shredded the facility.
Everyone there survived, but it took rescue teams about an hour to free scores who were trapped in the wreckage.
«I was just waiting for it to pick us up or slam something on top of us,» Elizabeth Hernandez, who had huddled inside a restroom in the building, recalled in an interview with Dallas television station WFAA. «I don't know how that didn't kill us.»
MOBILE HOMES 'COMPLETELY GONE'
A National Weather Service official said the Valley View
