LOUISVILLE, Ky: At least nine people have died in the most recent round of harsh weather to pummel the U.S., including eight people in Kentucky who died as creeks swelled from heavy rain and water covered roads.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Sunday that hundreds of people stranded by flooding had to be rescued.
Beshear said most of the deaths, including a mother and 7-year-old child, were caused by cars getting stuck in high water.
“So folks, stay off the roads right now and stay alive,” he said. “This is the search and rescue phase, and I am very proud of all the Kentuckians that are out there responding, putting their lives on the line.”
Beshear said there have been 1,000 rescues across the state since the storms started on Saturday. The storms knocked out power to about 39,000 homes, but Beshear warned that harsh winds in some areas could increase outages.
Nationwide Storm Chaos: Floods, Power Outages & Deadly Cold
Much of the U.S. beyond Kentucky faced another round of biting winter weather. The Northern Plains faced life-threatening cold, and snowstorms hit the Midwest and Northeast.
Parts of Kentucky and Tennessee received up to 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain during the weekend storms, said Bob Oravec, a senior forecaster with the National Weather Service.
“The effects will continue for a while, a lot of swollen streams and a lot of flooding going on,” Oravec said Sunday. “Any time there’s flooding, the flooding can last a lot longer than the rain lasts.”
A levee failed in the small community of Rivas, Tennessee, Saturday afternoon, flooding nearby neighborhoods and spurring rescue efforts from fire officials in west Tennessee. How the levee in Obion County became damaged and the number of people affected was unclear. A flash flood warning was issued by the National Weather Service just hours prior to the failure.
Rivas is 110 miles (177 kilometers) miles north of Memphis and is home to less than 300 people.
In Atlanta, a person was killed when a large tree fell on a home early Sunday, according to Atlanta Fire Rescue Capt. Scott Powell. He told reporters that firefighters were dispatched just before 5 a.m. after a 911 call.
Elsewhere, bone-chilling cold is expected for the Northern Plains with low temperatures into the minus 30s F near the Canadian border. Dangerously cold wind chill temperatures in the Dakotas and Minnesota of minus 40 Fahrenheit (minus 40 Celsius) to minus 50 F (minus 45.6 C) are expected.
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