warning Hi, we've moved to USCANNENBERGMEDIA.COM. Visit us there!

Neon Tommy - Annenberg digital news

Ten Dead in Midwestern Storms

Staff Reporters |
April 26, 2011 | 9:19 p.m. PDT

 

 

Flooding in Kentucky. From Flickr user WKMS.
Flooding in Kentucky. From Flickr user WKMS.
Heavy storms have unleashed floods and tornadoes across the midwest, killing at least 10 people, destroying property and interrupting farmers' planting season. One town in Missouri evacuated 1,000 households as the waters of the Black River swelled:

"For the people of Poplar Bluff in southeastern Missouri, it was a day of slow torture, watching the waters of the Black River rise, but helpless to stop it," PBS reports

Famously tornado-prone Missouri faced its most brutal storms in half a century last week:

"Two tornadoes, reports now confirm, shook the Gateway to the West on Friday, April 22, and, according to the city's newspaper, damaged around 200 homes, the Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, 35 businesses, and churches, with a total of 2,700 buildings affected," writes the Atlantic.

Governors in Missouri, Arkansas and Kentucky have declared states of emergency. According to the Wall Street Journal, the severe weather has also set back farmers in the U.S. breadbasket, who must delay their normal planting patterns:

Unfortunately, it's not over yet, NPR reports:

"More storms are forecast for tonight, and high waters from snow melts up north are still moving down the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri River Valleys, leading the National Weather Service to forecast that the Mississippi won't crest south of Memphis until mid to late May. And when it does, it will likely be at its highest level since 1937."

 

 



 

Buzz

Craig Gillespie directed this true story about "the most daring rescue mission in the history of the U.S. Coast Guard.”

Watch USC Annenberg Media's live State of the Union recap and analysis here.