National Weather Service warns of life-threatening flash flooding in U.S. South and Midwest

Get the Full StoryForecasters warned of a violent storm system that could bring catastrophic weather to the central and south U.S. through Saturday.

Parts of the Midwest and South faced the possibility of torrential rains and life-threatening flash floods Friday, while many communities were still reeling from tornadoes that destroyed whole neighborhoods and killed at least seven people.Forecasters warned of catastrophic weather on the way, with round after round of heavy rains expected in the central U.S. through Saturday. Satellite imagery showed thunderstorms lined up like freight trains to take the same tracks over communities in Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky, according to the national Weather Prediction Center in Maryland.The bull s-eye centered on a swath along the Mississippi River and included the more than 1.3 million people around Memphis.More than 90 million people were at risk of severe weather from Texas to Minnesota to Maine, according to the Oklahoma-based Storm Prediction Center.Those killed in the initial wave of storms that spawned powerful tornadoes on Wednesday and early Thursday were in Tennessee, Missouri, and Indiana. They included a Tennessee man and his teen daughter whose home was destroyed, and a man whose pickup struck downed power lines in Indiana. In Missouri, Garry Moore, who was chief of the Whitewater Fire Protection District, died while likely trying to help a stranded motorist, according to Highway Patrol spokesperson Sgt. Clark Parrott.Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said entire neighborhoods in the hard-hit town of Selmer were completely wiped out and said it was too early to know whether there were more deaths as searches continued. He warned people across the state to stay vigilant with more severe weather predicted. Don t let your guard down, he said during a Thursday evening news conference. Don t stop watching the weather. Don t stop preparing yourself. Have a plan. With flattened homes behind him, Dakota Woods described seeing the twister come through Selmer. I was walking down the street, Woods said Thursday. Next thing you know, I look up, the sky is getting black and blacker, and it s lighting up green lights, and it s making a formation of a twister or tornado.

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