For the fourth day in a row, severe weather conditions persisted across multiple states, including the threat of severe flooding in Memphis, Tennessee, and Little Rock, Arkansas, as well as tornado watches ranging from Texas to Kentucky.
Since Wednesday, at least 12 people have died as a result of the severe weather outbreak, including a 9-year-old boy in Kentucky who was swept away by floodwaters as he walked to a bus stop, and several people killed in southwestern Tennessee after a powerful EF-3 tornado ripped through the city of Selmer.
The Arkansas Division of Emergency Management confirmed the state’s first storm-related fatality, a 5-year-old child discovered in a home in southwest Little Rock. The agency did not provide any additional information about the child’s death, but did say it was related “to the ongoing severe weather in Arkansas.”
A 16-year-old firefighter who was responding to a reported water rescue died in a vehicle crash in Beaufort, Missouri, about 60 miles west of St. Louis, according to the Beaufort-Leslie Fire Protection District and a Missouri State Highway Patrol crash report.
The firefighter was identified as Chevy Gall.
“Tonight was a fire chief’s worst nightmare,” Beaufort-Leslie Fire Protection District Chief Terry Feth said in a statement on Friday. “We are heartbroken by the loss of one of our own.”
Another local fire chief, 68-year-old Garry Moore, was killed while assisting a stranded driver on Wednesday, according to Missouri authorities. Moore was the chief of the Whitewater Fire Protection District.
Overall, the death toll is five in Tennessee, three in Missouri, two in Kentucky, and one in Indiana and Arkansas.
Saturday is expected to be the final day of a multi-day high impact flood event that has caused havoc in parts of the Lower and Mid-Mississippi River Valley, which remains at high risk of flooding.
As of Saturday evening, Memphis, Tennessee, was still under a flash flood warning as the latest round of torrential rain moved east across parts of the mid-South Saturday afternoon.
According to the National Weather Service, it is a particularly dangerous situation, with life-threatening flash flooding occurring now or soon. A flash flood emergency is the NWS’s most serious warning about a flash flood.
Over the last few days, Arkansas has received up to a foot of rain, which is equivalent to approximately three months’ worth.
By Saturday evening, the Little Rock area’s flash flood emergency had been canceled, and the worst of the heavy rain had passed. However, significant flash flooding persists in the region.
Another flash flood warning in northeastern Arkansas, which included the towns of Cherokee Village and Hardy, was also lifted. Earlier Saturday, emergency management officials informed the National Weather Service that multiple water rescues were underway in the area, which included parts of Lawrence and Sharp counties.
According to state emergency management officials, preliminary damage reports in Arkansas include flooding on roadways, downed trees and power lines, water rescues, and possible tornado damage near Wynne. The National Weather Service has yet to confirm the tornado.
Even though the threat of severe storms will gradually diminish over the weekend as the stationary front moves eastward, more unsettled weather will continue to erupt over areas already devastated by tornadoes and life-threatening flooding.
In addition to flooding risks, Saturday evening brings the possibility of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. Tornado watches have been issued in seven states, from Texas to Kentucky, with cities such as Memphis, Little Rock, Nashville, and Houston on high alert.
Over the past 24 hours, more than a dozen tornadoes have been reported in Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri.
The worst of the severe thunderstorm, tornado, and flash flood threat will occur in the evening hours, as a line of strong thunderstorms with torrential rain sweeps across parts of the South.
The greatest tornado threat was in western Tennessee and northern Mississippi, including the Memphis metropolitan area. A couple of strong tornadoes, as well as very large hail and destructive wind gusts, could hit east Texas and western Tennessee.
The threat of severe weather and heavy rain will decrease on Sunday as this system moves eastward. However, parts of the Tennessee and Ohio River Valley could receive an additional 3 to 6 inches before the frontal boundary moves out of the region by Monday.
Parts of the Southeast are at a low risk of severe weather (level 2 out of 5), with storms potentially generating damaging winds, hail, and isolated tornadoes.
As a result, thunderstorms with heavy rainfall (potentially reaching 2 to 3 inches per hour) may cause flash flooding in prone areas. A significant portion of Georgia and Alabama, as well as parts of the Florida Panhandle, southern Mississippi, and southeastern Louisiana, are at risk of flooding.
