Tornadoes Sweep Across the South and Midwest, Killing at Least 7

At least seven people have been killed in Tennessee, Missouri and Indiana, officials said on Thursday, after more than 30 tornadoes, combined with hail and heavy rains, swept through the South and Midwest, flooding streets, snapping power lines and flattening homes and businesses.

The flooding was expected to worsen as the storm stalls over the region, putting millions under severe weather advisories over the next few days. Officials warned that a “generational flooding” disaster was possible as more than a foot of rain could fall, pushing swollen rivers and creeks over their banks.

Cities and counties across the Midwest and South were ramping up efforts to prepare for the severe flooding that was predicted for the days ahead. Officials said that schools in some districts in Tennessee and Kentucky would be closed on Friday.

The Army Corps of Engineers said it had filled about 1,500 sandbags to reinforce a levee near Poplar Bluff, Mo., where the Black River was expected to surge to near-record flood levels over the weekend. An urban search-and-rescue team was also deploying to the area.

Gov. Mike Braun of Indiana said he was activating the National Guard to help with the storm response.

As much as 10 to 15 inches of rain could fall through the weekend, the National Weather Service said. The most intense rain was expected in Arkansas and Tennessee, where floodwaters were rising in parts of Nashville and rescues were underway.

“We are pretty worried, about as worried as you can get,” said Jimmy Barham, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Little Rock, Ark.

Isaiah Butrum, 17, went with two friends to a public sandbag-filling station in Sikeston, Mo., on Thursday. He had seen his city flood before, he said, and wanted to protect his home.

“When it rains super bad, the water comes up out of the pipes,” he said. “It comes out of the sinks, it comes out of the toilets.”

The storm was already taxing some emergency systems. In Nashville, the continued wailing of tornado sirens had drained the batteries of some, causing them to stop working on Thursday, the Nashville Fire Department said, adding that in places where the power was out, the sirens did not recharge until electricity was restored. The department urged residents to rely on radio communication and weather apps to stay informed.

McNairy County in Tennessee, one of the state’s hardest-hit areas, was experiencing “widespread communications issues,” the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said in a statement. Three to five inches of rain fell over much of the state over the previous 18 hours, the agency said, and some areas received nearly seven inches.

The storm was blamed for at least five deaths in Tennessee. The toll included a father and his 16-year-old daughter whose modular home was struck by a tornado in Moscow, about 45 miles east of Memphis. The girl’s mother had been trapped under the house but was pulled out by emergency workers and taken to the hospital in critical condition, officials said.

In Indiana, a 27-year-old man was killed on Wednesday night after the pickup he was driving struck downed power lines in Hendricks County. Officials said the man had gotten out of his truck, come into contact with the power lines and was fatally injured.

In Missouri, a fire chief had been killed near Cape Girardeau, the State Highway Patrol said, although the circumstances were not immediately clear.

Officials also reported storm-related injuries in Kentucky, where a family had been hit by flying debris; in Missouri, where a child was in critical condition; and in Indiana, where one person had been rescued from a collapsed warehouse.

By Thursday afternoon, the National Weather Service confirmed that at least 33 tornadoes had hit the region. Officials in Carmel, Ind., a suburb of Indianapolis, showed footage of bricks cleaved from a building. Officials in Muncie, Ind., said that thousands of people lost power hours after strong winds knocked down power lines.

Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky said that a semi truck had flipped over in the wind, forcing an interstate to close for several hours. A regional airport in Paducah had sustained significant damage, he said, and the state police had rescued several people trapped in their homes and vehicles.

Randy Colyer, a farmer in East Cape Girardeau, Ill., said he heard “loud noises” while sheltering in his basement overnight. In the morning, he began cleaning up the damage outside with friends and neighbors.

“We found our shed gone and damage to the house, and a lot of machinery damaged — combines, tractors, semis, sheds,” said Mr. Colyer, 60, a fourth-generation farmer, who was also keeping an eye on the nearby Mississippi River, which could flood in the coming days.

The storm hit as the National Weather Service was reeling from significant staffing cuts ordered by the Trump administration. Last month, the Weather Service temporarily stopped collecting some of the data used to produce forecast models.

Governor Beshear, a Democrat, pointed to the storm on Thursday as a reason the agency should not be cut.

“The National Weather Service is a critical organization that we desperately need, and need to be strong,” he said at a news conference. “They are a lifeline.”

Reporting was contributed by Carly Gist, Judson Jones, Amy Graff, Nazaneen Ghaffar, Sara Ruberg and Jennifer A. Brown.