arts of the South and Midwest, still reeling from violent storms, tornadoes a
nd flooding, face new flooding and tornado warnings that forecasters said could last for days.
Severe thunderstorms have swept through a swath of the country with a populati
on of 2.3 million people from northeast Texas through Arkansas and into southeast Missouri.
In Kentucky, more than 500 roads were closed by Sunday because of the floods and mudslides. Two people were killed, inclu
ding a 9-year-old boy who was swept away as he walked to a school bus stop.
The downtown area of Hopkinsville, Kentucky — a city of 31,000 residents 72 miles (116 kilometers) northwest of Nash
ville, Tennessee — was submerged.
The first wave of storms killed at least five people in Tennessee and one e
ach in Missouri and Indiana on Wednesday and Thursday.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee called the devastation in his state “enormous” a
nd said it was too early to know whether there were more deaths as searches continued.
There was massive destruction in Lake City in eastern Arkansas, where homes were flattened and cars were flipped and tossed into trees.
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More than 300 tornado warnings were issued by the National Weather Service since the tornado outbreak began early Wednesd
ay, and new warnings followed overnight in Alabama and Mississippi, along with flash flood warnings in Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee. The number of tornado warnings eclipsed
those issued during last month’s deadly outbreak in Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri and other states.
Not all tornado warnings involve an actual tornado, and it was too early to know how many were actually produced by the current outbreak.
The severe weather also caused travel headaches.
Hundreds of flights have been canceled and more than 6,400 flights delayed, according to FlightAware.com, which reported 74 cancellations and 478 delays of U.S. flights early Sunday. The flooding also led to road closures in Kentucky and southern Illinois, among other places.
The severe weather hit at a time when nearly half the National Weather Service’s forecast offices have 20 percent vacancy rates — twice that of a decade ago — according to data obtained by The Associated Press.
