Tornadoes and severe thunderstorms have left nearly 300,000 people across seven states without power as of Monday night, reports MyJoyOnline.
Massive storms over the weekend resulted in at least 23 fatalities and widespread destruction throughout the central United States.
Forecasters indicate that the highest weather risk has now shifted eastward, affecting a large area from Alabama to New York.
Expect more thunderstorms, damaging wind gusts, hail, and flash flooding.
Heavy rain is forecasted to impact the East Coast into Tuesday morning, including areas of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
This heavy rainfall poses a slight risk of severe thunderstorms forming in regions from the Northeast to the Southeast, added the agency.
Additionally, severe thunderstorms might develop over Texas on Tuesday, with wind gusts potentially reaching 120 km/h or higher.
Parts of the southern US will continue to experience scorching temperatures, with record or near-record highs expected.
On Monday morning, over 120 million Americans were under severe weather warnings.
Sunday marked the busiest day for severe weather in the US this year, with over 600 storm damage reports across 20 states. Tornadoes and strong winds reduced buildings to rubble, flipped vehicles, and brought down power lines.
Meanwhile, lightning, thunder, and heavy rain forced the evacuation of around 125,000 spectators as Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 race was delayed by four hours.
Fatalities from the storms were reported in multiple states: eight in Arkansas, seven in Texas, two in Oklahoma, and five in Kentucky. In Alabama, a 79-year-old woman was killed Monday morning when a tree fell on her house, local media reported.
President Joe Biden spoke with the governors of the affected states and offered federal assistance.
On Monday, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency after severe storms hit much of the state.
“Last night many families and communities were not safe,” he said. “We had devastating storms that hit almost the entire state.”
In Colorado, a lightning strike killed a farmer and 34 of his cows.
In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott announced that over a third of the state’s counties were under a disaster declaration due to severe weather sweeping through the region.
All seven deaths in the state were reported in Valley View, Cooke County, near the Oklahoma border, after a tornado struck a rural area close to a mobile home park.
Among the victims were two children, aged two and five, along with three members of the same family.
Footage from the scene revealed a filling station and rest stop almost entirely destroyed, with twisted metal debris scattered over damaged vehicles.
These recent tornadoes follow another devastating one that hit a rural town in Iowa earlier in May, resulting in four fatalities.
Government forecasters have also predicted an “extraordinary” 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, set to begin next month.