Powerful storms unleash severe flooding, tornadoes from Texas to Maine

Residents in the southern and eastern United States are recovering after a slow-moving storm caused flooding from Louisiana to Maine and dropped more than a dozen tornadoes across the South.

NWS spotter reports of tornadoes between April 7 and April 11, 2024.

The rain began Monday in Texas and Louisiana, spoiling the solar eclipse for some. By Wednesday evening, more than a foot of rain had fallen near Kirbyville, Texas, horses had to be pulled from neck-deep flooding. About 150 miles northwest of Kirbyville, dogs were evacuated from a shelter in Jacksonville, Texas.

On Wednesday, an EF2 tornado injured 10 people in downtown Slidell, Louisiana, while an EF1 twister was caught on video in Chunchula, Alabama. The same day, an EF1 twister hit Katy, Texas, a suburb on the west side of Houston, heavily damaging a shopping center.

Later on Wednesday, 8 to 10 inches of rain fell in New Orleans, causing a Flash Flood Emergency to be issued by the National Weather Service. Much of the city was underwater Wednesday afternoon and evening. It was the worst flooding the city has endured in months and left residents asking why the pumps didn't have more power.

On Thursday, another EF1 tornado hit the Samara Lakes neighborhood, 10 miles northwest of St. Augustine, Florida. Two EF1 tornadoes were also reported in the Florida Panhandle.

The heavy rain moved eastward, with nearly 9 inches falling in Tallahassee, Florida, Thursday. While nearly 4 inches of rain caused flooding in Charleston, West Virginia, almost 5 inches of rain prompted flooding in the city of the same name in another state -- Charleston, South Carolina.

More than 8 inches of rain led to another Flash Flood Emergency just west of Pittsburgh later Thursday evening.

Also on Thursday evening, severe thunderstorms ripped through western North Carolina, spawning two EF1 tornadoes in Wilkes County. Wilkes County was home to two EF1 tornadoes in two weeks in October 2017. Prior to that, only three F1 tornadoes had tracked through the county in recorded history.

Doppler-estimated rainfall totals from Monday-Wednesday, and Wednesday-Friday this week.

Over 280,000 lightning strikes hit the ground in the eastern U.S. this week, according to lightning data from Vaisala/Xweather.

Plot of cloud-to-ground lightning strikes this week. (AccuWeather/Vaisala/Xweather)

Friday morning, flood warnings were in effect in western Maine, and there were reports of water over several roads between Portland and Bangor.