At least 23 people have died after severe storms swept through the United States, with possible tornadoes touching down in Missouri and Kentucky and fierce thunderstorms toppling trees onto cars in Virginia.
Fourteen people were killed in Kentucky, according to Gov. Andy Beshear. A tornado touched down in Laurel County at 11:49 p.m., with “numerous” more suffering severe injuries, the Laurel County Sheriff’s Department said in a social media post on Saturday.
With rescue teams continuing the search for survivors, Beshear warned that the death toll “is expected to grow.” Five counties have declared a state of emergency — Beshear had declared an emergency for the entire state the day before — and more than 100,000 customers are without power, Beshear said.
Farther west in Missouri, hundreds of miles from the destruction in Kentucky, five people were killed and 38 were injured in severe weather in St. Louis, city officials said. Meteorologists have not yet confirmed reports of a tornado, with the National Weather Service St. Louis saying that damage reports and radar imagery suggests one had “likely occurred.” At a news conference Friday, St. Louis Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson described a path of destruction that began on a major thoroughfare during afternoon rush hour before moving east over a river into southern Illinois.
About 5,000 buildings sustained damage, St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer said at a news conference Saturday morning, as rescue teams worked to locate missing people and search the debris.
“The devastation is truly heartbreaking,” Spencer said.
More than 100 miles south, Scott County Sheriff Derick Wheetley said a tornado on Friday struck several rural areas in the southern region of the Missouri county, killing two, injuring several more and “leaving behind a trail of destruction, with multiple homes completely lost and areas left unrecognizable.”
In Northern Virginia, a late afternoon storm struck with particular severity in the southern part of Fairfax County and in Alexandria, knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses, tearing down power lines and felling trees onto roadways. One motorist was found dead after a tree struck a car, Fairfax County officials said. Another person died on the George Washington Memorial Parkway, according to U.S. Park Police.
Friday’s destruction marked the third-straight day of significant severe weather, with more threats predicted through the weekend. Severe thunderstorms across the Great Lakes region late Thursday had knocked out power to some 284,000 customers as of Saturday morning, with Michigan suffering a large concentration of power loss, according to PowerOutage.us. In Wisconsin, a visibly striking tornado spun through fields in New Richmond, while another caused significant damage in Hammond. In the capital of Madison, a hailstorm dropped hail up to two inches in diameter.
On Saturday, Oklahoma, Arkansas and central and northeast Texas could face large, destructive hail, strong winds and possibly tornadoes. A low pressure system over the Oklahoma Panhandle is expected to prompt rapidly forming thunderstorms in the early afternoon.
The National Weather Service has issued tornado and severe storm warnings throughout the region and cautioned that much of Kentucky and parts of Tennessee are also under a slight risk (Level 2 of 4 risk) for flooding. The office in Jackson, Kentucky, was among those forced to stop staffing overnight shifts following the U.S. DOGE Service-led efforts to shrink the federal government.
The severe weather risk stretches more than 1,200 miles in total, with intense storms predicted to reach as far as East Texas to the Mid-Atlantic through the weekend. Thunderstorms with destructive gusts and damaging hail are expected to move to Kansas on Sunday. After this storm system winds down, another is expected to pick up to the west, with strong tornadoes in the forecast by Sunday for parts of the Plains.
From early Thursday to early Saturday, there have been over 1,500 severe weather reports across 24 states. Nine states have been hit by at least one tornado. The highest number of tornado and wind damage reports have been in Illinois, while the highest number of hail reports have been in Wisconsin.
Matthew Cappucci contributed to this report.
Discussion about this post