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A line of intense, back-to-back severe storms is moving through Tennessee early Thursday, bringing tornado warnings and reports of damage.
“This is the very definition of training storms,” said CNN Meteorologist Gene Norman.
These “training storms” are expected to continue over the next few days, contributing to the wider threat of once-in-a-lifetime flooding in Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee and Mississippi, forecasters warned.
Paul Reuter was at work when his youngest daughter texted to say she and the family were sheltering in the bathroom during a tornado warning.
Moments later, more messages arrived.
His mother and neighbor both shared devastating news: his home in Missouri was badly damaged, and his auto shop was destroyed, according to CNN affiliate KOMU.
“It’s a mess, you know. You don’t know what to think,” Reuter, a mechanic in Columbia, told KOMU. “First it was rage… but then you got to figure out how to pick the pieces up.”
The tornado left his auto shop nearly flattened — its roof blown off, and tools, water and oil scattered across the floor, the outlet reported. His home next door lost two-thirds of its roof, and a fallen utility pole cut power to the property.
But as the destruction settled in, so did the support.
David Lorenz, an electrician and longtime friend, arrived to replace the utility pole free of charge. Lorenz had his own loss to bear — a trailer home down the street, intended for his grandson, had been reduced to rubble.
“What else we gonna do?” Lorenz told KOMU. “Push her in a pile and say adios.”
Others joined the recovery effort.
Dickinson Roofing of Sedalia repaired Reuter’s roof and at least a dozen others at no cost. “We have the capabilities,” owner Brian Dickinson told KOMU. “Somebody working at a Subway or a factory doesn’t really have the capabilities to get up on a roof. So we got our tools, our crews our personnel.”
More than 280,000 customers are without power across Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Arkansas, according to PowerOutage.US, as intense and violent tornadoes plow through the central US.
Here’s the breakdown of customers without power as of 4 a.m. E.T.
- Indiana: 140,269
- Ohio: 81,957
- Kentucky: 41,851
- Arkansas: 22,748
Separately, more than 117,000 customers are without power in Michigan after being impacted by ice storms from the previous weekend.
Nashville is under a tornado warning, according to the National Weather Service, the latest in a series of heightened warnings for parts of Tennessee in the last few hours.
The NWS issued the warning at 2:36 a.m. C.T. as a dangerous storm with the potential to produce a tornado approached from the southwest.
This is part of a line of storms sweeping across western and middle Tennessee producing multiple tornado warnings, many of which carry the “particularly dangerous situation” designation from the NWS.
Many of these supercells are developing back to back, occurring over the same areas, such as Selmer, 90 miles east of Memphis. From roughly 1:15 a.m. C.T. until the current hour, this area has seen three supercells which were warned for tornadoes. Elsewhere multiple super cells are lining up southwest of Nashville.
Centerville, 60 miles southwest of Nashville, has seen multiple tornado warnings. Middle Tennessee remains under a tornado watch through 6 a.m. C.T.
The National Weather Service in Memphis issued a rare tornado emergency warning designation at 1:22 a.m. C.T. for an intense thunderstorm producing a tornado over the rural town of Slayden.
The storm was moving rapidly northeast at 50 mph through Hardeman County in Tennessee.
The tornado emergency warning designation indicates the damage threat could be catastrophic.
As of 1:39 a.m. C.T., the NWS lowered this to a particularly dangerous tornado warning. The storm remains dangerous and could produce considerable damage.
The NWS said it is a “life-threatening situation,” warning flying debris may be deadly to those caught without shelter and that mobile homes will be destroyed.
“Considerable damage to homes, businesses, and vehicles is likely and complete destruction is possible,” it added.
A powerful tornado swept through McCracken County, Kentucky, on Wednesday evening, destroying Christ Community Church, which briefly served as a shelter for three sheriff’s deputies before collapsing, authorities told CNN.
There have been no storm-related injuries reported in the county as of early Thursday morning, Ryan Norman, a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office, said in a statement. The church’s pastor, Tim Turner, who also serves as a chaplain for the McCracken County Sheriff’s Office, was not injured.
“At least two houses were damaged in Reidland,” Norman said, adding that officials expect to uncover more damage when daylight reveals the full extent of the storm’s impact. One road remains closed as deputies and emergency workers continue clearing debris.
Christ Community Church, a well-known hub for community outreach programs, is located on Old Hinkleville Road just south of Barkley Regional Airport.
Emergency management officials are monitoring the situation as recovery efforts are underway.
A line of strong storms produced more than 200 reports of severe weather from the Ohio River Valley to the Ozarks through 11 p.m. E.T. Wednesday, according to the Storm Prediction Center. There were 19 reports of tornadoes scattered across Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri. Numbers could increase substantially from overnight activity.
The SPC reports four people were injured from a tornado that damaged multiple structures in the Gage community in Kentucky. In Advance, eastern Missouri, a tornado destroyed a home. In a nearby town, one person was found dead, though authorities cannot confirm whether that was linked to the storms.
The strength and total number of tornadoes will not be known until local National Weather Service offices conduct damage surveys, which may take several days, hampered by the threat of more storms in some of the same areas.
The storms also produced 117 reports of wind damage, bringing down numerous trees and powerlines and damaging buildings across nine states. Two people were injured in Hartsburg, Illinois, when two semi tricks flipped on Highway 155. In Mill Grove, Indiana, one person was injured when a barn was blown into a house.
Some of the highest gusts reported include:
Eaton, Indiana: 100 mph
Orland, Indiana: 98 mph
Latham, Illinois: 90 mph
Lapel, Indiana: 87 mph
Homecroft, Indiana: 80 mph
There were 84 reports of hail, including 15 of hail larger than 2 inches in diameter. Some of the larger amounts include:
Baseball-sized hail in Ashland City, Tennessee, which blew out windshields, and similar-sized hail in Sandy Springs, Mississippi and Forrest City, Arkansas. Tennis ball-sized hail was reported in South Fork, Missouri.
Storms containing tornadoes continue to move eastward across the Ohio and Tennessee River Valleys, with tornado watches that will continue until 6 a.m. E.T.
The system producing the storms will effectively stall in many of the same areas and there is a level 3 out of 5 risk of more severe weather Thursday from the mid-Atlantic southwestward to Texas, impacting 79 million people. The region with the highest risk impacts 4 million people and includes Little Rock and Memphis.
One of the biggest threats these storms pose, beside tornadoes and hail, is torrential rain that could lead to catastrophic flooding.
Nearly 39 million people are under flood watches, from Ohio to extreme northeast Texas.
In the wake of Wednesday’s storms, anywhere from 2 to 4 inches has fallen. The threatened rain over the next few days could lead to widespread flash flooding that the NWS categorized as “an event that happens once in a generation to once in a lifetime producing historic rainfall totals and impacts.”
A tornado watch is in effect for parts of northern Alabama, eastern Kentucky, northern Mississippi and central Tennessee until 6 a.m. C.T. Thursday, according to the Storm Prediction Center.
Nearly 6 million people are impacted by the watch, which includes Nashville, Tennessee, and Tupelo, Mississippi.
A line of strong-to-severe thunderstorms will move across the watch area overnight. Even though there may be an overall weakening trend of the storms, they still could produce tornadoes with locally damaging gusts of up to 75 miles per hour, and hail of up to 1.5 inches in diameter.
Currently, 14 million people are under tornado watches in the central US.
One person is confirmed dead in Cape Girardeau following severe storms, though circumstances remain unclear, the Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP) told CNN.
The MSHP said it cannot confirm whether the death was due to severe storm at the moment and more details will follow Thursday morning.
Three people were rescued from the partially collapsed warehouse in Brownsburg, Indiana, which was hit by a tornado Wednesday night, officials told CNN.
The collapse initially left two people missing and one trapped at the Sur La Table warehouse, Kamrick Holding, a spokesperson for the Brownsburg Fire Territory, said in a statement. The missing individuals were found by co-workers, with one transported to a trauma hospital in downtown Indianapolis, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) southeast. Her condition remains undisclosed.
“The entrapped individual was awake and alert throughout the entire rescue efforts,” Holding said. “Crews worked diligently throughout the entire process to extricate the individual.”
The tornado caused at least one wall of the warehouse to collapse, and burst ceiling pipes flooded the floor, CNN affiliate WISH-TV reported.
Four people who took shelter in a van were injured near a tornado-hit church in Ballard County, Kentucky, the local emergency management office said in a Facebook post.
One member of the group was left in critical condition.
“Four individuals sustained injuries when they attempted to take shelter in their vehicle under the carport of a church,” it said in the post.
“The church suffered a direct hit from debris, causing severe structural damage. All four individuals were transported to a local hospital, three with non-life-threatening injuries and one in critical condition.”
A tornado tore through Carmel, Indiana, on Wednesday night, toppling a large radio tower downtown and ripping the front off a building, according to CNN affiliate WISH-TV.
Trees were uprooted from the saturated ground, and video shared by the outlet appeared to capture the storm in east Carmel.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning, while a tornado watch is in effect until 4 a.m. for southeastern Indiana, northern Kentucky and southwestern Ohio.
Several vehicles are submerged in high waters in eastern Indianapolis, the city’s police department said in a post on X.
No one was trapped in the vehicles but police warned drivers not to “put your vehicle or your life at risk by driving into water.”
These are photos of vehicles in high water at Southeastern and S Sherman at 10:50 PM. There were, thankfully, no people in the vehicles.
Please don’t put your vehicle or your life at risk by driving into water when you don’t know how deep it is. https://t.co/hStcbpfHqL pic.twitter.com/vZrkaziE8n
— IMPD (@IMPDnews) April 3, 2025
Several roads in Indianapolis may still be flooded after tonight’s heavy storms, and police urged drivers to obey road closures and watch for hidden hazards such as debris in floodwaters.
“Turn Around, Don’t Drown. Never drive through floodwaters,” the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said in a separate post.
Here’s what happened Wednesday:
• Storms began in the morning but increased in coverage and intensity in the afternoon. A massive, “potentially dangerous situation” tornado watch was issued around 3 p.m. CT for parts of 7 states. More than 15 million people were under tornado watches in the central US by Wednesday evening.
• Oklahoma and Missouri were the first states to see the most dangerous storms, some with confirmed tornadoes. EF-1 tornado damage was done around Owasso, Oklahoma, and Potosi and Nevada, Missouri.
• Arkansas was next, and a storm there generated what was the most violent tornado of the night, devastating Lake City, Arkansas, and areas around it. The storm survey, which the NWS typically conducts the day after the storm, will likely find this tornado did EF-3+ damage.
• A meteorologist at CNN affiliate KFVS stayed on the air as a tornado tore through Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and talked his audience through the disaster, all while he and his colleagues sheltered as it passed over the station.
• As the night wore on, storms began to consolidate into a single line that threatened damaging straight-line winds and embedded tornadoes.
What’s in store for Thursday:
• Severe thunderstorms will dump gushing rain on parts of the Mississippi and Ohio valleys starting late Wednesday. It’s the first of many, many rounds of heavy rain to come for the region.
“Extensive, rare, and at times catastrophic, flash flooding is likely… flash flood water levels may reach areas that rarely or have never flooded before.”
National Weather Service in Little Rock, Arkansas
• More than 15 inches of torrential rain is possible by Saturday — especially in the corridor where Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee meet — and could cause life-threatening, once-in-a-lifetime flooding.
Radar gives us a clear view of the storm that produced a large and destructive tornado as it tracked through Bay and Lake City, Arkansas, earlier this evening.
From this view, the storm had an almost textbook look for a tornado-producing storm.
The fish hook-like area on the back end of the storm is called a “hook echo” and it’s a clear signal that this storm was incredibly powerful. A hook echo doesn’t always mean a tornado is in progress, but it sends a clear signal that forecasters need to pay close attention as one could form soon.
The hook forms when a storm has really strong, rotating winds that pull rain, hail and potentially other debris toward its center. The clear, wedge-shaped area that helps give the hook its shape shows where air is being sucked into the storm — like an intake. All of the rainy areas in front of and behind the storm, which show up as yellow, orange and red, are its downdrafts, or exhaust.
You can see the hook part of the storm tracking directly over Bay and then just northwest of the center of Lake City.
