Tornadoes, heavy rains rip across central, southern US

Tornadoes on Wednesday ripped across a wide swath of the central and southern United States, destroying homes and businesses and bringing down power lines and trees.

According to the National Weather Service, NWS, there has been no fewer than 15 reports of tornadoes in at least four states by late Wednesday.

At the time of filing this report, there were no immediate reports of fatalities because of the storm, which also brought hail and torrential rain.

The NWS said millions of people were under alerts for tornadoes and flash floods, stating that dangers would continue into early Thursday.

“Violent storms are forecast to ravage the country for several days, with Wednesday just the beginning of a multi-day catastrophic and potentially historic heavy rainfall event,” the NWS said.

The tornado hit the town of Nevada, Missouri

Writing on social media, the state’s Emergency Management Agency said it caused major damage to several businesses, power poles were snapped and several empty train cars were flipped onto their sides by the powerful storm.