As communities in the central US grapple with widespread devastation from a line of deadly storms that spawned dozens of tornadoes this week, forecasters are warning of another grave threat to the region: relentless rain into the weekend, with the potential to trigger “generational” flooding.
The flooding threat comes on the heels of seven deaths across Tennessee, Missouri and Indiana after the violent system moved into the region Wednesday.
The Mississippi Valley, including parts of Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee and Mississippi, braced for a three-day stretch of extreme flood risk – an occurrence almost unheard-of outside hurricane season.
In hard-hit Selmer, Tennessee, a town about 90 miles east of Memphis, the tornado outbreak claimed at least three lives. Residents of a newly built apartment complex there scrambled to take shelter as the storm struck.
“Most people took shelter in their laundry rooms inside of the apartments,” said resident Justin West, whose unit survived while the front of the complex was “almost gone.”
West witnessed cars destroyed in the parking lot, piles of debris, and sections of the roof torn away. The complex opened less than a year ago, West pointed out.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee urged residents to stay alert, saying, “Don’t let your guard down.”
“There’s been a lot of damage, there’s been a lot of tornadoes, there’s been loss of life and real devastation across the state, but this storm is going to continue,” Lee said on Thursday.
At least five deaths had been reported in the state, according to Patrick Sheehan, director of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. And there were more than 4,000 customers without power in the state early Friday, according to PowerOutage.us.
At one point Thursday, tornado sirens in Nashville were sounding so frequently, their batteries drained and they fell silent, remaining inoperable until power was restored, city emergency officials said, encouraging residents to have multiple ways to receive weather alerts, including local news, weather apps and weather radios.
In Pilot Grove, Missouri, a tornado swept through the small city, leaving a trail of scattered debris, CNN affiliate KOMU reported. Among those affected was Justin Gerke, who rushed home after receiving an alert.
“I got a tornado warning alert on my phone and came home as soon as I could from work,” Gerke told KOMU. When he arrived, he found the roof of his childhood home ripped off, the garage obliterated, and several destroyed cars.
In Nevada, Missouri, the storm left widespread damage, including at Nevada Oaks, a former motel now serving as student housing for the Missouri Welding Institute, a trade school specializing in welding and metal fabrication. The family-owned property, which houses approximately 50 students, sustained significant damage, residents told CNN affiliate KSHB.
“This is our heart and soul,” Shari Snyder, who operates Nevada Oaks, told KSHB. “We love this place, my dad put everything into this place, and the students loved it here.” While no students were injured in the storm, the tornado shattered windows and destroyed several cars in the parking lot, the affiliate reported.
Flood threat lingers as system stalls
As the cleanup of tornado damage begins, the same system is forecast to trigger “life-threatening flash flooding” and severe weather through Sunday across the Ohio Valley, the Mid-South, and the Mississippi Valley, with the greatest impact expected in the Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas region, the National Weather Service warned.
Cities and counties across the Midwest and South stepped up preparations ahead of the expected flooding. Officials in Tennessee and Kentucky announced schools in several districts would remain closed on Friday, including Allen County Schools and Davidson Academy.
In Missouri, the Army Corps of Engineers said it had filled roughly 1,500 sandbags to bolster a levee near Poplar Bluff, where the Black River is projected to approach a level of “major flooding” category over the weekend. An urban search-and-rescue team has also been deployed to the area to support emergency efforts.
Shipping delays are also possible with the major cargo hubs of Louisville, Kentucky, and Memphis, Tennessee, in the line of storms.
From Arkansas to Kentucky, historic rainfall could bring once-in-a-generation flooding. While flooding has already begun in some areas, conditions are expected to worsen significantly through Saturday, according to forecasters. Rainfall totals are projected to be so extreme that forecasters are using statistical terms, such as 1-in-25-year, 1-in-100-year, and even 1-in-1000-year events, to describe their rarity.
A recent study highlights the role of climate change in extreme weather events, noting that hourly rainfall rates have intensified in nearly 90% of large US cities since 1970.
For this system, federal and local agencies have mobilized water rescue teams and emergency supplies, including food and water, to brace for the worst.
In Nashville, over a dozen water rescues took place on Thursday as relentless rain battered the city. Near Trevecca Nazarene University, first responders pulled a driver from a partially submerged vehicle, guiding him through a window and onto a rescue raft.
In Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency for the western part of the state, warning of record rainfall in areas unaccustomed to flooding. At least 25 state highways, primarily in the west, were submerged by floodwaters, according to the governor’s office. This comes after other recent flooding events in Kentucky. In February, a deadly winter storm claimed several lives, and in 2021, the state faced another large-scale flash-flooding disaster.
CNN’s Meteorologists Mary Gilbert and Brandon Miller and CNN’s Sara Smart, Taylor Romine, Jillian Sykes and Chris Youd contributed to this report.