OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH/KATV/TND) — At least 15 people are dead after storms and tornadoes tore through Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas Saturday night, leaving behind a path of destruction and power outages.

In Texas, seven deaths were reported in Cooke County near the Oklahoma border, including two children ages 2 and 5, according to Cooke County Sheriff Ray Sappington.

Sappington also told the Associated Press the number included three family members found in a home near Valley View.

It’s just a trail of debris left. The devastation is pretty severe,” Sappington said.

Denton County Community Relations Director Dawn Cobb confirmed a tornado near Valley View that was moving at 40 mph and stopped traffic on Interstate 35.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared a state of emergency for 106 counties, more than a third of all the counties in the state.

The governor said during a news briefing Sunday evening that the final round of search and rescue is underway, but as of that evening, no one is currently missing. He stressed that it could change.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has pledged to work with the state, communities and local residents in the recovery process.

Forecasters had issued tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings for parts of Texas and Oklahoma, as some heat records were broken during the day in South Texas and residents received triple-digit temperature warnings over the long holiday weekend.

The storms inflicted their worst damage in a region spanning from north of Dallas to the northwest corner of Arkansas, and the system threatened to bring more violent weather to other parts of the Midwest later in the day. By Monday, forecasters said, the greatest risk would shift to the east, covering a broad swath of the country from Alabama to near New York City.

In Oklahoma, officials confirmed two deaths in Pryor.

The National Weather Service's Norman office tweeted Saturday night about a tornado warning for Noble and Kay counties, which are north of Oklahoma City, and urged people to take cover.

The weather service office in Tulsa, Oklahoma, also warned on X of a dangerous storm moving across the northeast part of the state through 2 a.m. and issued severe thunderstorm notices for communities including Hugo, Boswell, Fort Towson, Grainola, Foraker and Herd.

There are reports of an unconfirmed tornado in Claremore, about 35 miles northeast of Tulsa.

Claremore officials held a news conference Sunday afternoon to address damage and outages. No casualties have been reported in the city. There are 23 total injuries with three people in critical condition.

The damage to the area consists of downed trees, power lines and damage to buildings with exact numbers unknown.

We are still experiencing widespread power outages," said John Feary, city manager of Claremore. "The good news is none of our other utilities have been affected. Our water treatment plant, our water distribution system are fine. Our sanitary sewer system is doing well."

According to Feary, both hospitals in Claremore are currently running on generators but hope to restore power by Sunday night.

There will be a curfew set in place from 10 p.m. Sunday to 6 a.m. Monday in Claremore to reduce the threat of looting in the storm wreckage. Rogers County officials are also working to create a county-wide curfew.

Major County Emergency Management shared photos on Facebook of large hail that was spotted.

At least five people were reported killed in Arkansas, including a 26-year-old woman who was found dead outside a destroyed home in Olvey, a small community in Boone County, according to Daniel Bolen, with the county’s Office of Emergency Management. Another person died in Benton County.

Baxter County Sheriff's Office also confirmed one death in their county following the tornadoes.

At a Sunday morning news conference, Benton County Judge Barry Moehring said the county’s top priority is the multiple law enforcement, fire and EMS crews are responding to search and rescue and other life safety missions.

There were at least three tornadoes said to have touched down Saturday night in the state, with one near Decatur, two around Beaver Lake and possible others in Benton County.

Elsewhere, a man was killed Sunday in Louisville, Kentucky, when a tree fell on him, police said. Louisville Mayor Craig Greenburg confirmed it was a storm-related death on social media.

The Indianapolis 500 started four hours late after a strong storm pushed into the area, forcing Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials to evacuate about 125,000 race fans. The weather put a year’s worth of planning in jeopardy when the band of thunderstorms swept through ahead of pre-race festivities.

More severe storms were predicted in Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky.

The risk of severe weather moves into North Carolina and Virginia on Monday, forecasters said.

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Editor's note: The Associated Press and KTUL contributed to this report.

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