More than 600,000 customers across 13 states from Arkansas to West Virginia had no power early Monday morning, after powerful storms and tornadoes over the weekend left at least 19 people dead.
There were more than 150,000 outages in Kentucky as of 8 a.m.; Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, and West Virginia each had more than 50,000 customers without power, according to the tracking site poweroutage.us. Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky said early Monday that he had declared a state of emergency.
Severe thunderstorms, with the threat of damaging wind gusts and hail, were expected from the Southeast to Mid-Atlantic region on Monday, the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center said. Flash flooding was possible from Maryland to the Catskill Mountains in New York, the Weather Service said.
Governor Beshear said that power lines were down across Kentucky, and that there had been reports of tornadoes and wind damage. As of Monday morning, there were two confirmed deaths in the state — one in Louisville, and a second in Mercer County, where a tree fell onto a house.
Elsewhere, a tornado left at least seven people dead in northern Texas, including two children aged 2 and 5. Eight people were also killed in Arkansas, and two died in Oklahoma as severe stroms swept through the region, flattening hundreds of buildings and entirely blowing away homes.
“We have gotten through at least the first part of this event,” Mr. Beshear said, speaking from a command center. “And we want to make sure we don’t lose anybody else.”
The system is the latest to pummel the region over the past few days. Five people were killed and part of a city was obliterated in Iowa last week after a powerful tornado hit.
On Sunday, severe thunderstorms in Howell County, Mo., produced hail the size of baseballs and tornadoes that downed trees and damaged homes near the town of Mountain View, said Kelsey Angle, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Springfield.
Forecasters said the storms forming over Missouri were predicted to grow overnight as they moved east, blowing strong winds into Kentucky and Tennessee.
“Really, Kentucky and Tennessee will be in the cross hairs for the damaging winds,” said Bill Bunting, a meteorologist with the Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla.
