At least nine people were killed and over a million people lost electricity when storms moved over the southern United States, bringing tornadoes and torrential rainfall. The National Weather Service reported late Friday that the severe storm had moved out of the southern United States and was headed towards the northeast, where it was expected to bring heavy snow and sleet to areas ranging from southeastern Michigan to New York.
Almost a foot of snow is possible by Saturday afternoon in parts of central New York and southern New England. According to Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky, at least two tornadoes were spawned by the storm system and tore across the western half of the state on Friday. The governor claimed on social media that three individuals had been killed by the storms, but gave no further information. The Fayette County coroner’s office confirmed that a lady was killed when a tree fell on the automobile she was in during the storm in Kentucky, making this the fourth fatality attributed to the weather event. Beshear said that Kentucky was seeing thunderstorms with gusts of 129 km/h (80 mph), which were “powerful enough to blow tractor-trailers off the road” in addition to the tornadoes. Before the storm hit, Beshear proclaimed a state of emergency because to the extreme weather, strong winds, extensive damage, and potential threat to life and property. On Friday night, Craig Greenberg, the mayor of Louisville, also issued a state of emergency. Greenberg urged his Facebook followers to take extra precautions today tonight and during the next several days. “I advise everyone in our neighborhood to practice great caution this evening, and in the following days,” he said.
“Major and significant”
Friday’s storm, with maximum wind speeds of 60 to 80 miles per hour, was described as “strong and historic” by the National Weather Service in Louisville. On social media, Alabama’s governor, Kay Ivey, said that three people had died as a result of the storm. According to the Scott County Sheriff’s Office, an Arkansas man was killed after his car was washed away by floodwaters when he was driving through a flooded roadway. On Friday, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves announced on social media that a single person had been killed by severe winds caused by storms that had occurred overnight. PowerOutage.us said that more than 1.4 million households and businesses in areas hit by the storm lacked electricity. Experts believe the southern United States is prone to violent storms in the winter because warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico collides with colder air travelling down from the north.
