Deadly tornadoes and severe storms tore across the Central U.S. Wednesday, resulting in the deaths of at least four people and knocking out power for more than 195,000 customers across seven states.
Multiple deaths in Tennessee and Missouri were reported, including a father and daughter whose house was damaged near Moscow in Tennessee’s Fayette County, the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office told FOX 13. The station reported that several others in the home were injured, and that other deaths had been confirmed in the hard-hit McNairy and Hardeman counties.
In bordering Missouri, Whitewater Fire Protection District Chief Garry Moore died Wednesday night, according to KFVS.
While details about how Moore died have not been confirmed, Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Clark Parrott told the station that it was possible the 68-year-old was stopping to help a stranded driver.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out (to) the Whitewater Fire Protection District as well as the family and friends of Fire Chief Garry Moore, as he made the ultimate sacrifice while serving during storms last night,” the Perryville Fire Department wrote on social media.
An Indiana man died after coming into contact with down power lines as storms moved through the area, police said, according to WTHR-TV.
Injuries were also reported in Kentucky, where four people were injured while sheltering in a vehicle under a church carport, the state’s emergency management office in Ballard County said.
Two workers were injured Wednesday when the roof and a wall collapsed at a Sur La Table distribution center in Brownsburg, Indiana.
“It was just heavy debris that had fallen on top of her,” Brownsburg Fire Department spokesperson Kamrick Holding told WTHR-TV. “She happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
The woman was conscious and talking during the rescue, but her condition was not immediately known.
Crews were working Thursday to search through the wreckage and assess the damage as the threat of tornadoes continued and shifted into Kentucky and West Virginia. Dozens of tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings were issued from Texas to West Virginia and about 2.5 million people were in a rarely called “high-risk” zone.
Storms have knocked out power for more than 195,000 customers in Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio, according to outage tracker PowerOutage.US.
Cameron Tate, the mayor of Lake City, Arkansas, stated on a Facebook post that residents were also without water.
Several governors declared states of emergency ahead of impending impacts.
The threat of flash flooding was expected to continue in Tennessee, where forecasters said as many as 15 inches of rain could fall through the weekend.
“We would say good morning, but last night was not good. Our hearts go out to all the communities who were affected and will awake to decimated towns and cities. Unfortunately, we are not done yet. More severe weather is in the forecast later today,” the National Weather Service’s Memphis office wrote.
Areas that have already felt the effects of intense downpours were expected to get hit again, leading to “significant to extreme rainfall totals over increasingly saturated soils.”
Tens of millions of people are anticipated to feel the effects of the “generational flooding” event and associated storms, which have stretched from Texas to the northern border.
Additional rounds in Texas, the Mississippi Valley and the Ohio Valley could even sweep cars away.
“A High Risk of Excessive Rainfall (level 4/4) is in effect Thursday from southwestern Kentucky into western Tennessee and northeastern Arkansas where the greatest threat for numerous instances of life-threatening flash flooding exists following heavy rainfall over the same areas Wednesday,” the National Weather Service said.
With reporting from The Associated Press
