A ruthless downpour drenched much of the central United States on Friday, pushing streams and streams out of banks, increasing flood fears across much of the area. The storm has already produced more than 30 tornadoes and killed at least seven, but is cultivating the country this week.
For now, the region has stagnated from Arkansas to Michigan, and communities are on high alert for more dangerous floods and more dangerous floods.
Residents of river towns and cities were stacking sandbags in anticipation of more rain that would prevail from eastern Texas to Illinois on Friday and continue into the weekend.
The National Weather Service warned about flash flood events that could risk their lives and break records Friday morning across the Lower Ohio Valley and central Mississippi Valley.
Flash flood warnings were also in effect until Friday afternoon in many Central and Western Kentucky. In Boston, Kentucky, about 35 miles south of Louisville, Bruce Gooden could see water creeping up as he cuts his hair at a barber shop near Rick Creek.
Heavy rain, swollen streams, could not flow into the nearby Rolling Fork River. Gooden, 63, had previously seen the water rise, but hours of intense downpours and cracks in lightning gave him a sense of destiny.
“Water never made it in my shop before, but this time I'm worried that it might happen,” he said, continuing to clip. He was stacking sand on the truck bed, he said, and if the water rose high enough, he was ready to pack and stack the bags.
“I play it with my ears,” he said. “Leave as open as possible.”
On Friday, bull's eyes for the heaviest rain that could lead to dangerous floods fell on slivers in southern Missouri, including the majority of Arkansas and the Ozarks. On Saturday, forecasters hope the threat will spread to the heels of boots in Missouri, Western Kentucky and Tennessee.
Floods are expected on the roads, and major rivers will likely run out to the banks as saturated ground cannot absorb more inches of rain.
“Unfortunately, I think the next 24-36 hours will be when we start to see the heaviest rain totals for this event,” Frank Pereira, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said Friday morning.
The same general area on Friday also allows serious thunderstorms that generate tornadoes. The risk will collide Saturday in the zones that include Little Rock in Memphis, Ark and Jackson, Mississippi. Strong and damaging gusts of wind and large hail are probably bigger than limes – more likely than tornadoes in this area.
At least five people, including a teenage girl, were killed in the storm this week in Tennessee, where several inches of rain fell Thursday caused massive flooding and closed roads.
At a press conference Thursday night, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee warned residents that the dangers posed by the storm were severe and could intensify. “Don't let your guard down,” he said.
Others who died in the storm included a Missouri fire chief and a 27-year-old Indiana man.
In New Madrid, Missouri, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a city along the Mississippi River that is at risk of rising water levels, brought machines to fill sandbags to cheer from urban workers. In Arkansas, participants in the revised department's work release program helped fill out the saline county punching bags.
As people prepared, customers' anxiety seemed to rise as slowly as water at a grocery store in Boston, Kentucky.
“You have to be ahead of it, you have to recognize it and make a plan,” said Steve Fox, 68. But the hill could become an island, he said, if the water rises sufficiently. “The water will probably go through the road and I will be blocked for a few days,” he said.
For those long enough to remember, the 1997 flood (one of the deadliest disasters in Kentucky history) is the measure of such events being measured, and residents fear that the days ahead will bring comparable.
Dennis Baker worked at the Boston Food Mart where Fox had been shopping for 31 years. All the while, the floodwaters had never violated her shop, but she knew that it was not a guarantee that this time it wouldn't happen.
She knew how dependent the community was on the store, and decided to maintain that lifeline even if the store was only accessible by boat.
“We're trying to keep our store open as long as possible,” she said.
Curly key points, Jenny Gross, Mitch Smith and Sarah Luberg Reports of contributions.
