CNN
—
At least two people have died and more than 10 million were under flood warnings or flash flood emergencies from Ohio to Mississippi early Sunday, as a powerful storm races across the eastern US.
Video footage captured in multiple states show toppled trees, vehicles submerged in floodwaters and inundated houses with widespread reports of flooded roads, businesses and homes in Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia.
Water levels reached historic highs in Kentucky as the storm gained momentum Saturday, officials said, two years after catastrophic flooding left 43 people dead and devastated parts of the state.
“First responders have completed nearly 30 water rescues today and counting,” the Louisville Metro Police Department said in a Facebook post late Saturday.
“We need Kentuckians to remain alert. There are more than 300 road closures, with (state transportation) leaders saying the statewide impact is historic,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear posted on social media. “From mudslides in the east to snow in the west, the situation is dangerous. Please plan ahead, avoid travel and stay safe, Kentucky,” the governor said.
A flash flood emergency was issued for Tazewell, Mercer and Summers counties in Virginia, where swift water rescues have been underway since Saturday.
“The frigid water temperatures that can result in rapid hypothermia for anyone caught in the flooding,” the National Weather Service office in Blacksburg, Virginia, warned.
Video taken in Grundy, Virginia, near the Kentucky state line showed rushing waters nearby as crews prepared to perform rescues, using boats to search buildings surrounded by floodwaters, according to a social media post from Chesterfield County Fire and EMS. Members of a scuba rescue team were also deployed.
Between 3 and 5 inches of rain have fallen across swaths of the Ohio and Tennessee valleys, with isolated instances of more than 6 inches.
Parts of West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Arkansas and Tennessee are under flash flood emergencies and warnings through Sunday morning. Flood watches in some areas will continue into Monday.
Several tornado warnings were issued across Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee late Saturday, before the storm pushed into Georgia on Sunday morning.
At least 265,000 customers in Georgia, 183,000 in Alabama, 64,000 in Mississippi and 20,000 in Louisiana were without power at 6:30 a.m. ET, according to PowerOutage.us.
Around 60,000 were also left in the dark across Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee.
At least two deaths have been attributed to the storm – one in Kentucky and one in Georgia.
A 73-year-old resident of Manchester, Kentucky, died in the Horse Creek area after being swept away by floodwaters Saturday night, officials said. The man was driving on Kentucky Highway 8, according to the Clay County Coroner’s Office. He was carried away by the heavy currents after leaving the vehicle, the coroner’s office told CNN.
And in Georgia, one person died in the Grove Park area of Atlanta overnight when a large tree fell on a home amid “tremendous thunderstorm activity” in the area, Atlanta Fire Capt. Scott Powell told reporters Sunday.
Fire units responded to a 911 call made just before 5 a.m. and found one person trapped inside the house, Powell said.
“There was an extended operation to remove that person. Unfortunately, it did result in a fatality,” Powell said.
The storm looks set come to largely come to an end by Monday, but parts of the Great Lakes could be buried by lake-effect snow in its wake.
Structures in Tuscumbia, Alabama, including one of the city’s middle schools, lost their roofs from strong winds, according to the town’s mayor.
“There is a lot of damage downtown,” William Foster told CNN affiliate WAFF Sunday morning. Drones would arrive in the morning to assess the roofs and other damage caused by the storm, he said, while a team from the Red Cross would also be deployed.
“There were no calls about major injuries,” the mayor added. “Most calls were for lack of power, oxygen.”
The city government posted a statement on Facebook warning that downtown Tuscumbia “was directly impacted” by the sweeping storm and asked residents to avoid the area.
CNN has reached out to the Tuscumbia Police Department and the Tuscumbia Utilities Department for more details.
A rare level 4-of-4 for high risk of flooding rainfall was in place for more than 1.5 million people in parts of northwestern Tennessee and western Kentucky where “life-threatening and significant flooding is anticipated,” according to the Weather Prediction Center.
Such weather events are issued on fewer than 4% of days per year on average, but are responsible for more than 80% of all flood-related damage and 40% of all flood-related deaths, research from the prediction center shows.
The threat level is raised because the atmospheric setup for the storm is “quite unusual for mid-February” and could support rainfall rates up to 2 inches per hour in the heaviest storms, according to the center. Half a foot of precipitation could fall in the high-risk area where heavier bouts of rain essentially get stuck for an extended period, the center said.
Almost no area could absorb that much rain without flooding, but recent storms have already soaked soils in this region and make the threat that much more serious.
Communities from eastern Arkansas to West Virginia were under a level 3 of 4 risk of flooding rainfall Saturday, the center said.
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey declared a state of emergency in 10 counties and a state of preparedness in all 55 counties Saturday, while the National Guard has been deployed in Virginia to assist with recovery efforts.
By Saturday afternoon, Kentucky streets were already inundated, with some areas seeing 2 to 4 inches of rain.
In Jackson, Kentucky, “serious flooding” overflowed the 75-acre Panbowl Lake as teams rushed to evacuate the area and facilities including a nursing home and hospital, officials said Saturday night.
In Whitesburg, Kentucky, residents at the Letcher Manor Nursing and Rehabilitation Facility were temporarily relocated to a local high school. “We will reach out to inform each family individually as we arrange transportation for their loved one,” the nursing home said in a post on Facebook.
Floodwaters surged through the roadways in several cities throughout Simpson County, Kentucky. Elsewhere in the state, dozens of flooded roads were closed in Adair County, according to emergency management officials.
As he relives the severe flooding that destroyed his home in late 2022, Knott County resident Danny Laferty said he is anxious he will “lose everything again.”
“It was awful, terrible. I mean we had mud 6 inches deep in here,” Laferty told CNN on Saturday. “That’s what makes me so nervous.”
CNN’s Kia Fatahi, Jennifer Feldman, Sara Smart, Lauren Mascarenhas and Taylor Galgano contributed to this report.