Ten Dead in Midwestern Storms
"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."