Nine people died in five southern states after a series of storms with damaging winds hit the region Thursday and Friday, officials said.
Three people died Friday in Kentucky, one in Tennessee, three in Alabama and one person was found dead in Arkansas, officials said. A person in Mississippi died Thursday in extreme weather conditions.
More than 750,000 homes and businesses in the states of Tennessee and Kentucky were without power Friday night, according to outage tracking website Poweoutage.us.
“We have already lost far too many people to flooding, tornadoes and other weather events, so we want everyone to be safe today,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said during a briefing. a press conference on Friday morning.
He signed a state of emergency to help get help where it’s needed, including warning 400 members of the National Guard.
The Kentucky deaths occurred in Simpson, Edmonson and Logan counties, Beshear said.
In Humphreys County, Tennessee, a man was found dead in a car with a tree on it Friday, the sheriff’s office said.
The top of the tree fell approximately 50 feet and landed in front of the vehicle. There were straight-line winds of 50 to 60 mph at the time, the office said.
The three deaths in Alabama involved falling trees or falling tree branches Friday in Talladega, Lexington and Huntsville, officials said.
In Yazoo County, Mississippi, a person was killed when a tree fell on a vehicle Thursday, according to the agency, known as MEMA.
In Scott County, Arkansas, a man was found dead Friday morning near a submerged truck in floodwaters, the sheriff’s office said.
More than 14 million people were under severe wind warnings in eastern Tennessee, most of Kentucky and parts of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio Friday night, according to the National Weather Service. . Wind advisories covered other areas, from Georgia to Pennsylvania.
Some locations in Tennessee experienced winds comparable to a tropical storm on Friday, the Nashville Weather Service said. Clarksville saw sustained winds of 40 mph and Springfield had 54 mph. (A tropical storm starts at 39 mph sustained.)
Nashville Electric Service said there were 115,000 homes and businesses without power Friday night due to morning thunderstorms. About 48 high transmission lines were down, he said, and 18 utility poles were down.
A Tennessee Highway Patrol sergeant was investigating an accident Friday when trees fell on his car, briefly trapping him, said the patrol. The officer was not injured.
A tornado was reported in McCracken County in western Kentucky. There was damage, but the sheriff’s department said deputies went door to door and found no injuries.
The Lexington, Ky., Fire Department said nearly all trucks were in traffic Friday night, including for downed power lines and people stuck in elevators.
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