Tornadoes, floods threaten Midwest for consecutive days as storms wallop the region and the South

Tornadoes and violent storms struck parts of the South and Midwest on Wednesday, knocking down power lines and trees, ripping roofs off homes and shooting debris thousands of feet into the air as a swath of severe weather hit the region.

The National Weather Service issued a tornado emergency, the most severe type of warning that exists, in Lake City, Arkansas — meaning there was a large tornado on the ground causing damage in a populated city. 

The agency has received at least 11 tornado reports by Wednesday evening, with nine of them across Missouri and two in Arkansas. Eastern Arkansas, southern Illinois, southern Indiana, western Kentucky, southeast Missouri, northern Mississippi and western Tennessee are all under a particularly dangerous situation: tornado watch through midnight CT.