Wild weather that claimed the lives of at least 21 people over the long holiday weekend moved Monday afternoon to the Northeast, where more than 30 million people are under a severe thunderstorm watch.
The watch, which the National Weather Service said was in effect until 9 p.m. ET, stretched across major metropolitan areas including Philadelphia, New York City and Syracuse, New York. The weather service warned the storms were capable of producing wind gusts of up to 65 mph and quarter-sized hail.
The storm watches come after a torrid weekend across southern states and in the Great Plains. Eight people were reported dead in Arkansas; seven in Texas; two in Oklahoma; and at least four in Kentucky. The deaths were caused by weather-related incidents, including falling trees.
At a news conference Monday morning, Kentucky’s Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said that the dead in his state included a 67-year-old woman in Mercer County; a 62-year-old woman in Hardin County; a 48-year-old woman in Hopkins County; and a 34-year-old man in Jefferson County. Another individual is “fighting for his life,” Beshear said.
“We had devastating storms that hit almost the entire state,” Beshear said, calling Sunday a “tragic night.”
Some Kentucky State Police phone lines were damaged by the storms, Beshear said, adding that 911 calls were routed to other agencies.
The weather caused massive damage to homes and businesses, but there was a bright spot, Beshear said.
“We did have a tree fall on a little girl who was riding her bike, and miraculously, she is OK, even though the bike was damaged,” he said. “There’s a bit of a hand of God in that story.”
The National Weather Service will send at least two teams to survey the damage across Kentucky, a process it said would take several days. A state of emergency was declared in numerous counties in Kentucky and across parts of Arkansas.
Images from the tiny farming community of Valley View, Texas, about 55 miles north of Fort Worth, showed that homes and vehicles had been obliterated. Weather watchers posted pictures from Missouri and Kentucky showing huge, ominous funnel clouds as well as golf ball-sized hailstones.
The severe weather stretched to Colorado, where a rancher and 34 of his cattle were killed in a lightning strike near the town of Rand, 80 miles northwest of Denver, the Jackson County coroner said. Mike Morgan, 51, was feeding cattle from a trailer when the bolt struck open pasture; the rest of the 100 head of cattle were unharmed, police said.
The PowerOutage.us website, which tracks energy connections, said there were more than 350,000 homes and businesses without power as of 3 p.m. ET in affected areas, including more than 148,000 in Kentucky. Arkansas had more than 57,000, the site said.
While a cold front makes its way north, extreme heat warnings are in place for southern and central Texas, where temperatures could rise to more than 100 degrees Monday, possibly breaking daily records.
The National Weather Service said in a forecast that the heat index — a measure of how hot it feels — could reach a potentially dangerous 120 degrees in the Lone Star State. Similarly hot weather is forecast for Key West, Florida, and surrounding areas.
The Associated Press contributed.
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