At least seven people were killed and 13 others injured after dozens of tornadoes tearing through large swaths of the US Midwest and South since Wednesday night, local authorities confirmed.
At least five fatalities were confirmed in Tennessee, one in Missouri, and one in Indiana, according to local media reports.
The worst impacts were felt in Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee, where residents described scenes of devastation as tornadoes ripped roofs off homes and hurled vehicles into the air, Xinhua news agency reported.
Four million people across seven states, from northeastern Texas to western Tennessee, faced what the Weather Prediction Center called a “prolonged, life-threatening flash flood event.” There were more than 30 tornadoes reported by Thursday evening, and in some communities, hail the size of baseballs.
As of 1:40 p.m. Central Time on Thursday, the tornado outbreak knocked out electricity for more than 210,000 households and businesses from Texas and Mississippi to Ohio and Indiana, according to powerOutage.us, the US power outage tracker.
Forecasters warned that severe weather including tornadoes and large hail is expected throughout large parts of central and southern United States on the weekend.
As the violent storms move eastwards, more than 3.6 million people are under life-threatening flash flood warnings in multiple Midwest and southern US states.
A rare high risk of flooding rainfall is in place on Thursday for portions of the Mississippi and Ohio valleys where round after round of storms will drop heavy rain through Saturday.
“This isn’t routine. This is a rare, high-impact and potentially devastating event,” the National Weather Service (NWS) in Memphis, Tennessee, warned Wednesday.
“Extensive, rare, and at times catastrophic, flash flooding is likely … flash flood water levels may reach areas that rarely or have never flooded before,” forecasters at the NWS in Little Rock, Arkansas, said on Thursday.
