More rain and storms loomed Sunday as emergency officials in Tennessee sought help from the state's Army National Guard, and urged people to stay off roads and interstate highways turned into raging rivers.
The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency on Sunday morning asked for the state's National Guard to help with rescue operations and Gov. Phil Bredesen was getting hourly updates on the storm.
TEMA spokesman Jeremy Heidt confirmed that one person died around 4 a.m. Sunday in a possible tornado near Pocahontas, about 70 miles east of Memphis. No further details were available.
Meanwhile, National Guard and Tennessee Highway Patrol helicopters with hoisting capabilities were on standby to rescue people from the floodwaters that covered city streets and left cars stranded on interstate highways turned into rivers.
Interstate-24 remained closed in Nashville, and segments of I-40 between Nashville and Memphis were blocked.
"The big message we're trying to get out is stay off the road," TEMA spokesman Mike Browning said. "It's really dangerous for a lot of people to be out there right now." In northern Mississippi, Benton County Coroner John Riles said two people were killed in a mobile home that "looks like you stuck about four sticks of dynamite on it and it just disappeared." Riles said a two-story house nearby also was obliterated. "If you didn't know the house was there, you'd think it was a vacant lot," he said.
In Lafayette County, Emergency Management coordinator David Shaw said one person was killed in Abbeville, where 15 or 20 houses were damaged by strong winds.
A spokeswoman at the National Weather Service said it was too early to say if tornadoes had caused the damage in Mississippi.
A line of strong thunderstorms Saturday dumped at least 10 inches of rain on Memphis and produced tornadoes and hail along the Mississippi River Valley in Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky and northward.
The forecast called for more rain through the day Sunday, which could stymie rescuers trying to reach all of the far-flung areas that have been affected.
Some areas were hit by 13 inches of flash flooding on Saturday, and the same was expected on Sunday, Browning said.
"This thing is not going to be over this weekend by any means," he said.
The five other deaths in Tennessee were related to the storm, but the exact causes were not yet known. The Leaf Chronicle in Clarksville reported that two of the victims were swept away in a rain-swollen creek in Stewart County, about 65 miles northwest of Nashville.
The Tennessee deaths came a day after a tornado in Arkansas killed a woman and injured about two dozen people.
