LITTLE twin sisters and an unsuspecting woman sleeping in her bed are among the growing list of victims killed by storms raging across the country.
At least six people have been found dead in the piles of rubble left by deadly tornadoes as even more weather nightmares brew on the horizon.
Early Sunday morning, upstate New York was hit by a powerful twister that ripped through neighborhoods for 2.43 miles, as confirmed by the National Weather Service.
At 3:58 am, the tornado struck and caused extensive damage in Oneida County, located approximately two hours west of Albany, with winds reaching speeds of up to 105 mph and lasting about five minutes.
Three people were killed by flying trees and branches that were ripped up by the twister and thrown into houses.
Tragically, among the casualties are two young sisters, Emily and Kenni Bisson, aged six, who lost their lives when their roof caved in due to a large maple tree, as reported by Syracuse.com.
Their mother, Kayleigh Bisson, survived after she was pulled through a window with the help of her neighbor Jared Bowman, he told the outlet.
She desperately cried for help, but by the time neighbors came, it was too late.
“She was yelling, ‘Get my kids out!’ But there was no noise,” Bowman said.
“It felt very eerie and bad.”
Not far from the Bissons’ home, another woman, Shelly Johnson, died when a tree slammed through her roof as she lay in bed.
Rick Carollo, a firefighter who also lives beside the victims, said the tornado sounded like a freight train when it dozed through their neighborhood.
He said he shimmied up a tree and through a window to try and save the girls, but felt that one of them didn’t have a pulse by the time he could get inside.
Three other people died in North Dakota on Friday after thunderstorms and tornadoes tore through the region in the middle of the night.
Two of the victims were discovered by storm chasers inside a damaged home outside the rural town of Enderlin, which is two and a half hours away from Bismarck, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office said.
The storm claimed a third person’s life in a nearby area that suffered severe damage from the twisters, according to the Enderlin Sheldon Fire Department.
The victims have been identified as Michael Dehn, 73, Katherine Pfaff-Dehn, 73, and Marcario Lucio, 89.
Officials said the area was hit so hard that they couldn’t determine whether the victims were inside or outside their homes when the properties were destroyed, Inforum reported.
The National Weather Service estimates that the tornado brought 165 mph gusts of wind as it traveled from south to north throughout the town, destroying many homes and farm buildings.
WEATHER WARNING
While some Americans brace for storms, others are braving triple-digit temperatures as a life-threatening “heat dome” descends on 150 million people.
Nearly half of the country faces searing temperatures as a large area of high pressure is trapping heat and sending the UV index skyrocketing.
Weather officials have warned that the so-called heat dome can last for weeks, and urged people to be wary of heat stroke, which can set in in just 15 minutes.
