Heavy rains and heavy winds have hit the central and southeastern US for over five days, leaving a trajectory of death, damage and chaos in parts of 19 states.
Born from warm air, strong winds, abundant moisture and an unstable atmosphere, the storm system drenched the central part of the country throughout the weekend, and floods and tornadoes from Texas to Ohio.
The storm is currently moving eastward towards the Atlantic coast and is expected to begin moving into the ocean on Monday and Tuesday, with enough rainfall to inflate the rivers and streams for the next few days.
Here's what you need to know about a destructive storm system:
Many states have been soaked in heavy rain for several days.
Torrential rains from the storm continued for days in many areas, saturating the ground, burning rivers and rivers, and draining them far more than they could handle.
The area around Benton in western Kentucky recorded more than 15 inches of rain from Tuesday morning until Sunday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. Memphis earned more than a foot in that same period, with some areas along Interstate 40 northeast of the city being overwhelmed by nearly 16 inches. A total of 8-11 inches was common, from central Arkansas to the Ohioli Valley via boot heels in Missouri.
As the storm moves east and southeasterly on Monday and Tuesday, the heaviest remaining rain in southeastern Alabama and central Georgia is expected. Also, although not much, it is set to soak most of the East Coast.
The rain caused dangerous floods.
Most of the damage from the storms up to now has been caused by floods that overshadow riverbanks and levees, surged from the streets, flooding the basements and basements of buildings. Many of the most difficult places were riverside cities and towns that previously saw catastrophic flooding.
The river continued to rise after the worst storm. “It's all just flowing from the ground to the local streams and streams, given the fact that everything is very saturated,” said Nate McGinnis, a meteorologist with the Weather Service in Wilmington, Ohio.
Dozens of rivers from Arkansas to Indiana flooded Sunday, threatening bridges, levees, sewer systems and other infrastructure. Some streams and rivers were not expected to climb for a few more days. Stuck residents were rescued throughout the area.
The still rising Kentucky River swam through the city of Frankfort, the state's capital on Sunday, with residents waiting worriedly until the nearby river peaking. The city's flood walls can withstand 51 feet, but weather services predicted the river would be summit at 49.5 feet.
Elsewhere in Kentucky, parts of Shelbyville and all of Falmouth had been subject to forced evacuation orders. Some areas of Nashville were overflowing. Floods in Mammoth Springs in Ark washed away the rail line on Saturday and derailed freight trains.
The storm has killed more than 12 people in five states.
At least 18 people died Sunday evening due to the storm system. Of these, nine were in Tennessee.
Two of the dead were young boys. A five-year-old boy found at a Little Rock home in Ark and a nine-year-old man who was cleaned by the Frankfort floods were walking to the school bus stop.
The fire chief in Whitewater, Missouri, was killed while responding to a tornado damage, and a 16-year-old firefighter on his way to help with rescue operations was killed in a crash crash in Beaufort, Missouri.
Many tornadoes have torn the area apart.
The Storm System packed violent punches, particularly on Wednesday, when it produced dozens of tornadoes from southern Arkansas to northern Indiana.
There have been so many reports of tornadoes that some weather services offices have delayed checking them. And in Nashville on Thursday, so many tornado warnings and alerts were issued, some of the city's warning sirens ran out of batteries.
In Goreville, Illinois, we barely missed Cassandra Beasley's home on Wednesday night. She passed just 100 feet from her home, but it wasn't until the next day that she realized how close she had to having a disaster brush.
“I went home that night,” she recalls.
The tornado also landed elsewhere over the weekend. The other person was hit in Jasper County, Michigan, near Burton, Alabama, killing one late Saturday.
The storm system is characterized by strong gusts of wind, even in areas where tornadoes are not formed. By the weekend, service was restored in most areas, but knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of customers.
The pace of tornado formation has eased since Wednesday, but more tornadoes will be possible in the coming days, particularly as storms move eastward in parts of southeast Georgia, northern Florida and southeast South Carolina.
Report contributed Nazany Gaffer, Ali Watkins, Curly key points, Isabelle Taft and Kevin Williams.
