Harsh weather is pummeling the United States. In recent days, there’s been deadly flooding in Kentucky, a tornado in Alabama, and a polar vortex in the country’s midsection. Now the latest in a long line of winter storms is headed toward the East Coast and threatening to dump heavy snow and ice.
Weekend Southern Storms
Water submerged cars and buildings in Kentucky and mudslides blocked roads in Virginia late Saturday into Sunday. Both states were under flood warnings, along with Tennessee and Arkansas.
A Tennessee levee failed on Saturday and flooded a small community. Obion County Mayor Steve Carr mandated evacuations due to rising water, lack of electricity, and freezing temperatures on Sunday.
Photos posted on social media showed cars and buildings underwater in parts of Kentucky. In Buchanan County, Virginia, the sheriff’s office said multiple roads were blocked by mudslides.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear says hundreds of people stranded by flooding were rescued on Sunday. President Donald Trump approved the state’s request for a disaster declaration. He authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate relief efforts throughout the state.
In Alabama, an EF-1 tornado touched down in Hale County on Sunday. Storms there and elsewhere in the state destroyed or damaged a handful of mobile homes, downed trees, and toppled power lines. No injuries were immediately reported.
Sadly, at least 14 people died as a result of severe weather over the weekend. Beshear says most deaths in Kentucky happened when cars got stuck in high water. He also reports 1,000 rescues across the state since the storms began on Saturday.
Pray for God’s comfort and provision for Kentuckians, Tennesseans, Virginians, and Alabamans who lost loved ones and homes to the storms.
Cold Weather Ahead
Meteorologists say the United States is getting its 10th and coldest polar vortex event this season. Weather forces in the Arctic are combining to push the chilly air that usually stays near the North Pole into the United States and Europe. The northern Rockies and northern Plains are first in line.
Bismarck, North Dakota, measured the temperature at negative 39° Fahrenheit early on Tuesday. The biggest batch of record cold temperatures will likely hit Thursday and Friday, says meteorologist Andrew Orrison.
The wintry weather will also affect places just starting to clean up from weekend floods. A storm that dropped snow in the Midwest spread across the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys on Wednesday.
In southern West Virginia, thousands were without power Tuesday night. The incoming snowstorm “is going to severely hinder, if not halt, a lot of the efforts that we have,” says McDowell County Commissioner Michael Brooks. “We want to ensure that we are doing our best to at least keep people warm.”
Meanwhile, weather reports call for a half foot or more of snow in flood-hit Kentucky. “This is a snowstorm in the middle of a natural disaster,” Governor Beshear says.
In Oklahoma on Tuesday, slick roads caused minor injuries in the crash of a tractor-trailer carrying eggs. Commenting on the soaring price of the product, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol wrote on social media: “Expensive cargo right now.”
During times of trouble, it’s easy to forget who created and stores the snow. (Job 38:22-23) Yet God is in control of all things—including the weather!
