Deadly storms sweep through the South, leaving at least nine fatalities

A major storm system with a deadly mix of heavy rains, winds and flash flooding swept through a large swath of the Southeast overnight, causing at least eight fatalities in Kentucky and one in Georgia.

The storms rendered some roads impassable, damaged buildings and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses. The National Weather Service reported at least one tornado overnight in Alabama, and tornado warnings were issued in multiple states.

Bob Oravec, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland, said the slow-moving storm system dropped significant rainfall across parts of Kentucky, Arkansas and Tennessee during the day Saturday.

Later, a line of thunderstorms that formed overnight moved more quickly through the area, dropping less rain but mixing with windy conditions. “The high winds across the South caused several reports of damage to trees, to homes, so a very impactful event,” he said.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said at a Sunday afternoon press conference that at least eight people had been killed in the state during the storm, including a woman and child who died in floodwaters. He said he expected the number of fatalities to rise. Another person died in Atlanta after a tree fell on their home, WANF reported.

Kentucky was slammed by the storm

Beshear said all of Kentucky’s 120 counties were impacted by the weekend storm. “The biggest challenge of this event is it’s everywhere,” he said. Parts of Kentucky received more than six inches of rain.

Beshear said early Sunday afternoon that emergency response crews had already conducted more than one thousand rescues in Kentucky. He urged Kentuckians to avoid driving if possible as floodwaters remained and search-and-rescue efforts were active. Some 142 people were being housed at state parks.

President Trump approved Beshear’s request for an emergency disaster declaration for Kentucky, which frees up federal funding for impacted areas. The governor said he had also spoken with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and that FEMA personnel had been deployed to the state.

Some hard-hit areas were still recovering from deadly floods that pummeled the area in 2022, WEKU’s Stan Ingold reported.

The storms’ effects were felt across the South and beyond

Heavy rains in Tennessee drenched some areas with more than seven inches of precipitation. The NWS reported Sunday morning that a levee near the town of Rives had failed and caused “rapid onset flooding.”

Though the rain had slowed, certain areas affected by the drenching storm were expected to receive one to two inches of snow on Sunday.

Power outages were also widespread. As of Sunday afternoon, more than 125,000 people in Georgia and 80,000 people in Alabama were in the dark, according to the website PowerOutage.us. Thousands were also without power in Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi.

In addition to widespread road closures, the storm also snarled travel at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina. More than 100 flights were cancelled and another 300 were delayed, according to the website FlightAware.com.

The northern end of the same storm system dropped heavy snow in some areas of northern New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, Oravec added.

NPR’s Amy Held contributed reporting.