Tornadoes sweep across the South and Midwest, killing at least 7

At least seven people have been killed in Tennessee, Missouri and Indiana, officials said Thursday, after nearly 30 tornadoes, combined with hail and heavy rains, swept through the South and Midwest, flooding streets, snapping power lines and flattening homes and businesses.

The flooding was expected to worsen as the storm stalls over the region, putting millions under severe weather advisories over the next few days. Officials warned that a “generational flooding” disaster was possible as more than 1 foot of rain could fall, pushing swollen rivers and creeks over their banks.

Cities and counties across the Midwest and South were ramping up efforts to fill sandbags Thursday as forecasters predicted severe flooding in the days ahead. Gov. Mike Braun of Indiana said he was activating the National Guard to help with the storm response.

As much as 10 to 15 inches of rain could fall through the weekend, the National Weather Service said. The most intense rain was expected in Arkansas and Tennessee, where floodwaters were rising in parts of Nashville, Tennessee, and rescues were underway.

“We are pretty worried, about as worried as you can get,” said Jimmy Barham, a meteorologist at the weather service office in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The storm was already taxing some emergency systems. In Nashville, the continued wailing of tornado sirens had drained the batteries of some, causing them to stop working Thursday, according to the Nashville Fire Department. In places where the power was out, the sirens did not recharge until electricity was restored, the department said. It urged residents to rely on radio communication and weather apps to stay informed.

At least five people have died of storm-related injuries in Tennessee, officials said. The toll included a father and his 16-year-old daughter whose modular home was struck by a tornado in Moscow, about 45 miles east of Memphis. The girl’s mother had been trapped under the house but was pulled out by emergency workers and taken to the hospital in critical condition, officials said.

In Indiana, a 27-year-old man was killed Wednesday night after the pickup he was driving struck downed power lines in Hendricks County. Officials said the man had gotten out of his truck, come into contact with the power lines and was fatally injured.

In Missouri, a fire chief had been killed near Cape Girardeau, the State Highway Patrol said, although the circumstances were not immediately clear.

Officials also reported storm-related injuries in Kentucky, where a family had been hit by flying debris; in Missouri, where a child was in critical condition; and in Indiana, where one person had been rescued from a collapsed warehouse.

By midday Thursday, the weather service had confirmed that at least 29 tornadoes had hit the region. Officials in Carmel, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis, showed footage of bricks cleaved from a building. Officials in Muncie, Indiana, said thousands of people had lost power hours after heavy winds knocked down power lines.

Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky said that a semi truck had flipped over in the wind, forcing an interstate to close for several hours. A regional airport in Paducah had sustained significant damage, he said, and the state police had rescued several people trapped in their homes and vehicles.

Randy Colyer, a farmer in East Cape Girardeau, Illinois, said he had heard “loud noises” while sheltering in his basement overnight. In the morning, he began cleaning up the damage outside with friends and neighbors.

“We found our shed gone and damage to the house, and a lot of machinery damaged, combines, tractors, semis, sheds,” said Colyer, 60, a fourth-generation farmer, who was also keeping an eye on the nearby Mississippi River, which could flood in the coming days.

The storm hit as the weather service was reeling from significant staffing cuts ordered by the Trump administration. Last month, the weather service temporarily stopped collecting some of the data it used to produce forecast models.

Beshear, a Democrat, pointed to the storm Thursday as a reason the agency should not be cut.

“The National Weather Service is a critical organization that we desperately need, and need to be strong,” he said at a news conference. “They are a lifeline.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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