Tornado hits elementary school in Arkansas

Tornado watches issued across the Deep South on Wednesday

A tornado has reportedly slammed into a school in Arkansas, destroying parts of the building.

The twister hit the gym at the George Elementary School in Springdale shortly after 4am local time, 4029TV reported. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Video footage from the scene showed a flattened building and buckled metal frame, surrounded by heavy debris.

The main school building also suffered damage along with the playground. Classes were canceled on Wednesday after power outages, and utility workers closed roads near the school due to downed lines.

The twister emerged from severe storms rolling through Arkansas with tornadoes and hurricane-force winds forecast in much of the Deep South.

The storms come a week after a New Orleans tornado that struck during the overnight hours and left one man dead.

The National Weather Service issued tornado warnings for towns in western parts of Arkansas on Wednesday morning. A tornado watch was also issued in northeastern Texas, along with northern Louisiana, southern Missouri and southeastern Oklahoma through early Wednesday afternoon.

Forecasters said tornadoes were likely, along with isolated wind gusts of 80 mph (130 kph) or higher.

The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, said all of Mississippi and parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee were at the greatest risk for severe weather on Wednesday.

More than 8 million people live in the area at greatest risk, which includes the cities of Memphis, Tennessee; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Jackson, Mississippi; and Montgomery, Alabama.

There is much debate among scientists over whether the climate crisis is playing a role in tornadoes.

Twisters are tricky to study partly because they are relatively short-lived. In the years before cell phones, data largely relied on people spotting tornadoes and calling them into the National Weather Service.

However the body of research is growing. A study in 2014 from the National Severe Storms Laboratory found that in the past 50 years, clusters of tornadoes have become more common.

A separate 2018 study found that over the past four decades, America’s “Tornado Alley” appears to be shifting towards the East Coast, away from typical paths through Kansas and Oklahoma.

What’s likely happening is that the West is getting drier because of human-caused climate change, which makes it harder for the air to become moist and unstable, which is crucial for tornado formation. Meanwhile the Southeast is getting warmer air, which holds more water vapor, which creates that important instability.

AP contributed to this report