"Multiple" tornados and violent thunderstorms could cause havoc across the country this weekend and lead to "large hail" and "intense rain", meteorologists have said.
The National Weather Service warned homeowner s in states including Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri to prepare for possible twisters. While they also warned that a slow-moving low-pressure system creeping across the central plains could bring "damaging winds" and "flash flooding".
The destructive weather left some residents in Nebraska and Iowa devastated on Friday when a funnel cloud touched down and destroyed dozens of homes that lay in its path. The National Weather Service said the worrying meteorological conditions could affect millions more people over the weekend and into Monday.
READ MORE: Kansas tornado warning for severe weather as baseball-size 'gorilla hail' falls in terrifying storm
Their report stated: “Multiple disturbances embedded within a slow-moving upper-level trough responsible for the active weather are currently developing another low-pressure system over the central Plains. Showers and thunderstorms are expected to erupt in the warm and unstable air ahead of the low-pressure system east of a dry line from northern Texas through central Oklahoma into eastern Kansas.
“A moderate risk of severe weather is forecast through tonight per the Storm Prediction Center with the possibility of large hail, damaging winds and multiple tornadoes. In addition to the severe weather, intense rainfall rates are expected to accompany these thunderstorms at times, leading to a moderate to locally high potential of flash flooding to occur in these areas through tonight.”
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Married couple Julie and Dana Jorgensen were left homeless after a twister barreled through their property, near Yutan, Nebraska on Friday. Julie had been hurrying back to her address after hearing that a funnel cloud had touched down in her vicinity. But when she got within a few hundred yards of her front door, she watched in terror as the twister smashed into her home while Dana was still inside.
Julie told 6 News WOWT: “I was scared for him because I knew he was in the house, and I watched it hit the house. And I could have videotaped it, and I got my phone up, but I was shaking so bad, I couldn’t figure out how to use my phone.”
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The home was left wrecked by the tornado - with photos showing how the walls were crushed and the windows smashed by the force of the scary weather phenomena. Luckily, Dana revealed how he had managed to seek refuge in a tiny "crawl space" just moments before it struck the building.
He told the channel: “[I was] scared, really scared. It was like a vacuum — the noise and wind, and then things hitting the house — and then the suction on my ears. And within about 30 seconds, it was gone.”
Around 120 homes suffered damage as the massive storm hit neighboring Iowa, with four people in the state also requiring medical attention after suffering injuries. Governor of Iowa Kim Reynolds issued a "Proclamation of Disaster Emergency for Pottawattamie County" after the area was severely hit by the storm yesterday.
After surveying the damage today, she wrote on X: “The people of Iowa are coming together, just like we always do, to help one another. With the possibility of more storms today, please be safe and look out for your neighbors.”
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