Facing south and midwest

By Adrian Sainz, George Walker IV and John Seewer, Associated Press

Lake City, Ark. (AP) – Midwest and southern parts were faced with the possibility of torrential rains and deadly deadly floods on Friday, while many communities were still in shock from tornadoes that destroyed entire neighborhoods and killed at least seven people.

The forecasters warned against catastrophic weather conditions on the way, with a round after heavy rains expected in the center of the United States until Saturday. Satellite imagery has shown that thunderstorms aligned like freight trains to take the same tracks on the communities of Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky, according to the National Weather Predication Center in Maryland.

The Storm Center, based in Oklahoma, the National Weather Service warned against a moderate risk of serious thunderstorms on Friday along a corridor in the northeast of Texas across Arkansas and in southeast Missouri. This area, which has a population of around 2.3 million inhabitants, could see bunches of serious thunderstorms at the end of the afternoon and evening, with the potential for certain storms to produce strong with intense and a very large hail.

People killed in the initial wave of storms that caused powerful tornadoes on Wednesday and early Thursday were in Tennessee, Missouri and Indiana. They included a man from Tennessee and his teenage daughter whose house was destroyed, and a man whose van struck down the dropout of the Indiana. In the Missouri, Garry Moore, chief of the Whitewater fire protection district, died while he was probably trying to help a stranded motorist, according to Highway Patrol’s spokesperson. Clark Parrott.

The governor of Tennessee, Bill Lee, said that whole districts of the city hardened from Selmer were “completely destroyed” and said that it was too early to find out if there were more deaths as the searches were continuing. He warned people of the whole state of staying vigilant with more serious times planned.

“Don’t let your guard fall,” he said at a press conference on Thursday evening. “Don’t stop looking at the weather. Do not stop preparing. Have a plan.”

With houses flattened behind him, Dakota Woods described when he saw the Twister go through Selmer.

“I was walking in the street,” said Woods on Thursday. “The next thing you know, I look up, the sky becomes black and darker, and it lights up the green lights, and it makes a form of a twister or a tornado.”

The threat of lightning floods is looming on many states

From Thursday late, extremely strong rains fell into certain parts of southeast Missouri and western Kentucky and caused “very dangerous / endangering floods” in certain places, according to the National Weather Service.

Strong rains were to continue there and in other parts of the region in the coming days and could produce sudden dangerous floods capable of sweeping away cars. The powerful storm system will bring a “important and potentially fatal flooding every day,” said National Weather Service.

The water rescue teams and sand bag operations were staged throughout the region, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency was ready to distribute food, water, beds and generators.

Water rescues were already underway in flooded regions of Nashville, Tennessee, where the rain could persist for days after a disturbing period of Tornado warnings which drained the batteries of certain sirens of the city, said the fire service.

Western Kentucky has prepared for record rain and floods in places that are normally flooded, said Governor Andy Beshear. At least 25 state highways were overwhelmed, mainly in the West, according to a statement from his office on Thursday.

Sudden floods are particularly disturbing in rural areas of the state where water can quickly rush from the mountains in the hollows. Less than four years ago, dozens died in flood in eastern Kentucky.

Extreme floods across the corridor that includes Louisville, Kentucky and Memphis, which have main freight hubs, could also lead to expedition delays and the supply chain, Jonathan Porter, chief meteorologist at Accuweather, told Jonat.

The forecasters have attributed violent time to hot temperatures, an unstable atmosphere, a strong wind shear and an abundant moisture streaming in the Gulf.

Tornadoes leave the damage path, and others could come

Under a dark sky Thursday morning, the remains of a used automotive dealer in Selmer stood without roof and emptied, with debris dispersed on the car field and wrapped around the mutilated trees. Some houses were torn from their foundations in the city of Tennessee, where three tornadoes were suspected of attacking.

The Tennessee Highway Patrol published a lightning video illuminating the sky while the first speakers traveled the ruins of a house, looking for anyone trapped.

In the neighboring Arkansas, a tornado near the debris from Blytheville Lofted at least 25,000 feet high, according to the meteorologist of the meteorological service Celly Amin. The state emergency management office reported damage in 22 counties of tornadoes, wind, hail and sudden floods.

The house where Danny Quals spent his childhood but more life was flattened by a tornado in the northeast of Arkansas.

“My husband was extremely dropped and emotional, but he also knows that we have to do the work,” said Rhonda Quals. “He was in shock last night, shouted to sleep.”

Bulldozers workers have cleaned the rubble along the highway that crosses Lake City, where a tornado with shear winds of 150 mph off the coast of houses, collapsed from brick walls and throws cars into trees.

The governor of Mississippi said that at least 60 houses had been damaged. And in the far west of Kentucky, four people were injured while they rose in a vehicle under a church car shelter, according to the Ballard Comté emergency office.

Walker IV reportedly reported to Selmer, Tennessee and Seewer from Toledo, Ohio. The editors of the Associated Press Andrew Demillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee, Seth Borenstein in Washington; Isabella O’malley in Philadelphia; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Bruce Schreiner in Louisville, Kentucky; Jeff Martin in Atlanta; Hallie Golden in Seattle; And Ed White in Detroit contributed.

Originally published: April 4, 2025 at 5:59 a.m.