Widespread flooding was ongoing Thursday across the central U.S. as an atmospheric river hung over a vast swath of the country, leaving tens of thousands without power as the death toll climbed and forecasters warned of worsening conditions.
Dozens of tornadoes were reported from Arkansas to Illinois on Wednesday and early Thursday, according to the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center. Across multiple states, the devastation was immense. The storms and tornadoes flattened homes, tore off roofs, collapsed a warehouse, decimated a church and overturned trailers.
In Kentucky, Misty Vincent huddled in a bathtub with her four children and two pets as the storm ramped up Wednesday night. The roof of her home was ripped off and then the rain began to pour onto them. “It’s like the sky opened up inside,” she told the Louisville Courier Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network.
At least six deaths have been tied to the storms. Officials in Missouri said one person was killed Wednesday in the southeast part of the state, local news outlets reported. In Tennessee, officials reported fours deaths across McNairy, Obion, Hardeman and Fayette counties. And in Indiana, authorities say a man died after touching a downed power line.
Over 30 million people from Texas to Ohio and West Virginia were still at risk Thursday of powerful tornadoes and major flooding, which is only expected to worsen over the coming days as some parts of the country receive upwards of 15 inches of rain. “This is a catastrophic, potentially historic heavy rainfall and flash flood event,” the National Weather Service said in a forecast, adding that people should prepare for “severe disruptions to daily life.”
Wednesday’s weather warnings approached record high
The National Weather Service issued a whopping 728 weather warnings across the central U.S. on Wednesday, AccuWeather said. “This was the third-highest number of warnings issued in a 24-hour period since 1986, only behind April 27, 2011, (881) and May 30, 2004 (834),” said AccuWeather meteorologist Jesse Ferrell.
Warnings stretched from northern Texas to western Pennsylvania, with the highest concentration of warnings focused around western Tennessee, he said.
Child in critical condition after Kentucky church takes direct hit
An 8-year-old boy from Kentucky is in critical condition after being injured in the storms that swept the state Wednesday night.
Ballard County Director of Emergency Management Travis Holder said a family of four, including a mother, father, daughter and son, were sheltering under a carport at Bethel Cumberland Presbyterian Church when the storms ramped up.
The church experienced a direct hit from debris brought by two simultaneous twin storm systems and all members of the family were taken to Mercy Health in Paducah. The boy was eventually taken to an out-of-state hospital after doctors assessed his condition.
Emergency water rescues ongoing in Nashville
The Nashville Fire Department said crews were responding Thursday to several flooding and water rescue calls.
Images released by the department show water crews traversing flooded city streets.
NFD crews are responding to several flooding and water rescue calls after the overnight storms. If you go out this morning, please use caution:
•Avoid flooded roads—turn around, don’t drown.
•Watch for downed trees and debris.
•Slow down & give responders space as they work. pic.twitter.com/xx7WBZ7tBB— Nashville Fire Dept (@NashvilleFD) April 3, 2025
Memphis warned to prepare for flooding… and power outages
Heavy rain has started to affect rivers around Memphis, the weather service said: “While some rivers and streams have already shown a response from last night’s rainfall, soils will soon also show a response,” the weather service in Memphis said Thursday morning. “They will become supersaturated and leave no option but to reject all the additional rain as runoff. Flash flooding will emerge as a primary concern with this extremely active pattern.”
“In addition, all of this rainfall will make tree limbs very weak and easily breakable. It is best to not only prepare for flooding, but power outages as well,” the weather service said.
Memphis, the home of FedEx, handles millions of packages per day. Should major interstates be impacted in this zone, AccuWeather warned, there could be significant shipping and logistics delays that ripple across the country in the coming days and result in significant supply chain disruptions.
Scene in Carmel, Indiana: Torn off roofs and shredded walls
When morning broke in Carmel, Indiana, a suburban city just north of Indianapolis, a string of business owners showed up to work to find ripped-off roofs and overturned trees. At one gym, equipment had flown nearly 50 feet. And nearby, drywall from a warehouse hung in the trees.
About a dozen people roamed the street taking photos and surveying the damage that was likely the center of a suspected tornado that ran through with winds as high as 75 miles per hour. The south end of the Carmel Old Town Antique Mall was completely torn off.
The area of severe damage appeared to be relatively narrow as roads a block away were clear of debris and damage. There are no known deaths related to the storms in Carmel.
Businesses destroyed in Kentucky tornado
More than half a dozen businesses, including a day care, sustained high speed winds that knocked in garage doors and tore apart metal roofs in Jeffersontown, Kentucky.
“Probably over half the building is torn up,” Tim Meagher, owner of J&J Transportation, told the Courier Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network. He said in addition to the main building being destroyed, at least 10 tractors and trailers on his property were damaged during the storm.
Meagher’s co-owner, Mark Plummer, was in the building when it partially collapsed, but suffered no injuries. One of his drivers, Randall Lampkin, was sleeping in the cab of a truck outside the building when a trailer was lifted into the air and slammed into it, Meagher said. Lampkin was uninjured.
“I was tore up,” he said. “I’m just glad nobody’s hurt. We can fix this building. We’ll be back.”
