Donald Trump on Friday approved an emergency declaration for Kentucky as the central US braces for what experts in the region have warned could be a “generational” flooding event, as severe spring storms that have killed at least seven continue to wreak havoc.
Millions are affected across a swath of the US stretching from Texas to Ohio, and the powerful storm system that has raged for two days is expected to stall over the country’s midsection, the National Weather Service (NWS) said, fueling further deluges and possible tornadoes in areas already drenched from thunderstorms bringing heavy rains.
The dangerous weather comes as the Associated Press revealed that due to Trump administration job cuts, nearly half of National Weather Service forecast offices have 20% vacancy rates, according to data obtained by the agency.
Detailed vacancy data for all 122 weather field offices show eight offices are missing more than 35% of their staff – including those in Arkansas and Kentucky where tornadoes and torrential rain hit this week – according to statistics crowd-sourced by more than a dozen National Weather Service employees.
Experts said vacancy rates of 20% or higher amount to critical understaffing, and 55 of the 122 sites reach that level.
The weather offices issue routine daily forecasts, but also urgent up-to-the-minute warnings during dangerous storm outbreaks such as the tornadoes that killed seven people this week and “catastrophic” flooding that’s continuing through the weekend.
The weather service this week has logged at least 75 tornado and 1,277 severe weather preliminary reports as the center of the US has been hit by extreme weather conditions.
Authorities in Frankfort, Kentucky, reported on Friday morning that after hours of searching for a missing child, a body was recovered from flood water where it is suspected a juvenile was swept away while walking to a bus stop, according to local media.
Local officials reportedly identified the boy as Gabriel Andrews, aged nine. His death was in addition to seven already reported elsewhere in the central region on Thursday.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) announced on Friday morning that federal disaster assistance is being made available to Kentucky “to supplement response efforts in the area affected by severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes and flooding, beginning on April 2 and continuing”.
The agency said the presidential authorization gives Fema the role of coordinating all disaster-relief efforts – for all 120 counties in the state of Kentucky.
Meanwhile, the NWS office in Memphis, Tennessee, said on Friday morning that total rainfall amounts through Sunday could exceed 10-15in across a wide area.
“This is not your average flood risk. Generational flooding with devastating impacts is possible,” the service said, according to local media reports.
Farther west, more twisters are expected.
“We’re concerned there could be some strong but essentially intense tornadoes across north-east Texas up into western Arkansas,” said Evan Bentley, a forecaster at the NWS Storm Prediction Center.
The NWS upgraded the storms to a risk level 4, out of a scale of five used to measure the expected intensity of severe weather. Only 10 to 12 storms are given that rating each year, making them “pretty rare,” Bentley said.
Fatalities reported since Wednesday include a father and his 16-year-old daughter, who were killed when a tornado hit their modular home in Tennessee, according to the New York Times. An emergency was already declared in Tennessee.
Five people in total died in Tennessee in weather-related incidents, and one in Indiana and one in Missouri, NBC News reported. At least 13 were injured across the region.
About 34 tornadoes were reported across the region on Wednesday, according to the Storm Prediction Center. It confirmed that at least one tornado touched down in Wilmington, Ohio. Twisters were confirmed overnight in six states: Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee.
The climate crisis is bringing heavier rainfall and related flood risks to most parts of the US, with the upper midwest and Ohio River valley among the regions most affected, according to Climate Central, an independent non-profit that researches weather patterns.
On Thursday, the risk of rainfall topping flash-flood guidance was at 40% or higher for an area stretching from western Arkansas north-east to south-western Ohio, according to NWS maps.
Flash-flood warnings are in effect in the Ohio River valley from the north-western corner of Mississippi to north-eastern Kentucky, with the NWS warning that such events “will have the potential to become catastrophic and life-threatening”.
The NWS is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).
The wave of severe weather is one of the first since the Trump administration began to sharply cut Noaa’s workforce. The layoffs and a buyout program are expected to shrink the agency’s headcount by roughly 20% and could hamper some of its operations, scientists and researchers have said.
Trump has also attacked Fema and last month signed an executive order that seeks to shift responsibility for disaster preparations to state and local governments.
Reuters contributed reporting
