At least nine people, including a child, were dead after a severe rainstorm pounded a large swath of the South and left hundreds of thousands of people without power on Sunday morning and communities contending with flash flooding.
In northeast Tennessee, the National Weather Service in Memphis issued a flash flood emergency on Sunday afternoon through Monday morning after a levee along the community of Rives failed, causing “rapid onset flooding” there and the surrounding areas.
“Get to high ground now,’’ the Weather Service warned on social media. Rives, which is northeast of Memphis, has a population about 300.
Kentucky was hit particularly hard and at least eight people died there because of the storms, Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky said at a news conference on Sunday.
He said there had been more than 1,000 rescues and there were more than 300 road closures.
“Avoid driving through covered roadways,” he said. “That’s where we’re losing the most people.”
At one point early on Sunday, flood warnings were in place for all 120 counties in Kentucky. Parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia were also under flood warnings on Sunday morning, according to the Weather Service.
Mr. Beshear said that President Trump had approved his request for an emergency disaster declaration, which makes federal funding available to help the state recover.
In Kentucky, a woman and her 7-year-old child in Bonnieville, an unincorporated area in Hart County about 66 miles south of Louisville. The mother’s vehicle was swept away during flash flooding, said Anthony Roberts, the Hart County coroner.
A man was found dead floating in floodwaters in an unincorporated area outside Manchester, Ky., according to Clifton Jones, the chief deputy in the Clay County sheriff’s office.
Jason Abner, the Clay County coroner, identified the man as Donald K. Nicholson, 72, of Manchester, Ky. He said that Mr. Nicholson had been driving on Kentucky Route 80 but got out of his vehicle when the road became impassable, and had been swept several hundred feet.
In Georgia, a person was killed in Atlanta after an “extremely large tree,” fell on a house during a thunderstorm early on Sunday, Capt. Scott Powell of the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department told reporters.
In Virginia, flash floods were reported in the southwestern portion of the state, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said on Saturday. Severe flooding struck Hurley, an unincorporated area near the borders with Kentucky and West Virginia.
In Buchanan County, in western Virginia, emergency teams were rescuing stranded people late Saturday, said Lauren Opett, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.
In western Kentucky, more than six inches of rain had been observed by Sunday morning, the National Weather Service said.
Tornado warnings were issued early Sunday for parts of central and northern Georgia, into the northwest of South Carolina, where hail was also expected from the thunderstorms.
More than 185,000 customers were without power in Georgia, and over 109,000 were without power in Alabama on Sunday morning, according to Power Outage U.S. In Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, more than 30,000 customers were without power in each state.
Bob Oravec, a meteorologist from the Weather Service, warned that the main threat from Sunday’s thunderstorms would be severe winds.
“Gusts between 50 and 60 miles per hour are most likely across northern Florida into Georgia, which may cause trees to fall down and damage to property,” he said.
Even after the cold front carrying the storms moves offshore, strong winds are expected to persist. As a result, wind advisories were issued along the East Coast for Sunday, from northern Florida to the Northeast.
“The storms are going to continue to advance east,” said Frank Pereira, a meteorologist with the Weather Service. “And with that there will be the potential for additional heavy rains and severe weather, including severe thunderstorms and perhaps a tornado or two.”
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