Fierce Storms Kill at Least 15 Amid High Tornado Risk in the South

Severe storms that left at least 15 people dead across Missouri and Arkansas spawned intense, long-lasting tornadoes at a level typically experienced only once or twice in a lifetime that swept across a vast section of the South on Saturday.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported 12 fatalities in the state as of Saturday afternoon, with six in Wayne County, three in Ozark County, one in Butler County, one in Jefferson County and one in St. Louis County.

In Arkansas, three people were killed in Independence County, and 32 others were injured across the state, according to the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management.

The National Weather Service tornado survey team said that it found that the damage sustained on Friday night in Cave City, Ark., was consistent with winds of 165 miles per hour.

On Saturday afternoon, the buzzing of generators and chain saws filled the air in Cave City, as neighbors came together to help the city of 2,000 clean up.

“We’re all a big family,” said Lisa Coles, a resident. “This will be devastating, but we’ll all pull together. This is why I live here. I wouldn’t live anywhere else.”

The National Weather Service on Saturday issued the highest risk alert for tornadoes in some parts of the South.

By midafternoon on Saturday, severe storms were pounding parts of Louisiana and Mississippi. The Weather Service reported that tornadoes touched down near Kentwood, La., Jackson, Miss., and in Pike County, Miss. Tornado warnings and shelter-in-place orders were issued in surrounding towns, according to the agency.

From the afternoon into the evening, the storms are expected to sweep across Alabama and into Tennessee before crossing into Georgia and northern Florida overnight.

According to the Storm Prediction Center, Saturday is likely to be the third time in history that the center has issued a high-risk warning on the second day of a storm.

Central Mississippi and Alabama faced the highest risk level, five, in the center’s rating system. The Gulf Coast states and Georgia face a high risk level of four on Saturday.

Storms at this highest level of alert can often produce intense long-track tornadoes, meaning they stay on the ground for a very long time. A slow storm will typically only affect one or two communities, but a faster-moving storm such as this one can cross multiple states, leaving a long trail of damage.

The Weather Service issued tornado watches for eastern Louisiana, including Baton Rouge, nearly all of Mississippi and the western half of Alabama, including Birmingham and Montgomery, through Saturday evening. The service said these areas faced a “particularly dangerous situation,” a designation used during a high risk of violent tornadoes.

Only seven percent of tornado watches receive this extra warning, and areas under these alerts are three times as likely to experience damaging tornadoes, according to a NOAA study analyzing tornado watches from 1996 to 2005.

A tornado struck Tideland Drive in Bridgeton, Mo., on Friday night. Residents said on Saturday that about eight houses were damaged. The city said that a home that was particularly battered was no longer suitable for living.

A neighbor, Matthew Adams, described the ferocity of the storm.

“I just heard a big boom and crashing and came outside and as soon as I came out, I didn’t even know my house had damage,” he said. “I just saw my neighbor’s house here and trees through her garage.”

One street over, on Fuller Lane, Sarah Milbourn said, “You could just hear stuff getting ripped up and it was crazy.”

Robbie Myers, the director of Butler County Emergency Management in Missouri, said that at least one person had died overnight after getting trapped in a house that sustained severe damage on a country road near Poplar Bluff, Mo.

More than 500 homes, a church and grocery store in town had also been damaged, he said. A mobile-home park, he said, had been destroyed. Storms caused widespread damage in the state, including in the city of Rolla, state emergency officials said late Friday night.

Around 5 p.m. Eastern time, power outages had spread to 100,000 customers in Missouri, more than 23,000 in Illinois, more than 17,000 in Indiana and close to 11,000 in Arkansas, according to PowerOutage.us, a tracking website.

These storms are all connected to the intense system wreaking havoc across the central United States, which has brought tornadoes across the Midwest and dust storms and wildfires to the Plains.

The storms on Saturday were expected to form numerous significant tornadoes, some of which could be potentially violent, damaging hurricane-force (greater than 74 miles per hour) winds and golf-ball- or even baseball-size hail.

Tornadoes typically occur across the South from the middle of March until late April, when the risk shifts to the Plains.

The most recent tornado outbreaks in the United States occurred on March 31 and April 1, 2023, when 146 tornadoes, many of the less-intense variety, caused 26 fatalities, according to William Bunting, deputy director at the Storm Prediction Center.

It ranks as the nation’s third largest-third outbreak for total number of tornadoes.

Several larger outbreaks, often referred to as “super outbreaks,” have caused more destruction and deaths, and there are three specifically “by which all other outbreaks are judged,” Mr. Bunting said.

On April 11 and 12, 1965, a barrage of nearly 50 tornadoes spread destruction across six states and caused 260 deaths. Less than a decade later, on April 3 and 4, 1974, an onslaught of tornadoes was reported across the central United States and into southern Canada, leading to 335 deaths.

More recently, from April 25 to 28, 2011, more than 200 tornadoes were reported in five southeastern states. April 27 was the deadliest day, with 122 tornadoes causing 321 fatalities, according to Mr. Bunting.

The threat of severe weather is expected to continue into the weekend, as the front pushes eastward.

Reporting was contributed by Gwen Moritz in Cave City, Ark., Jennifer A. Brown in Bridgeton, Mo., Amy Graff, Simon J. Levien, Hank Sanders, Qasim Nauman and Jonathan Wolfe.