![A man looks at his damaged car after a tornado struck Sunday, May 26, 2024, in Valleyview, Texas. Powerful storms left a wide trail of destruction Sunday after destroying homes across Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas and destroying truck stops where drivers had taken shelter as deadly weather set to hit the central United States.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/7498x4999+0+0/resize/1100/quality/100/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F66%2Fa4%2Fd49159e145169b479e17e6d26545%2Fap24147575443078.jpg)
A man looks at his damaged car after a tornado struck Sunday, May 26, 2024, in Valleyview, Texas. Powerful storms left a wide trail of destruction Sunday after destroying homes across Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas and destroying truck stops where drivers had taken shelter as deadly weather set to hit the central United States.
Julio Cortez/AP
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Julio Cortez/AP
As Memorial Day weekend approaches, large swaths of the eastern United States are bracing for severe weather. Deadly storms over the long weekend knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people across the South and halted holiday travel at busy airports in the Northeast.
Severe storms were expected to move from Alabama to upstate New York Monday evening, according to the National Weather Service. Forecasters said the storm could bring heavy rain and flash flooding to the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. Hail, strong winds and tornadoes are possible from northeastern Maryland to New York's Catskill Mountains, according to the NWS.
The threat of severe weather Monday follows powerful, deadly storms that swept through parts of the South and Midwest over the holiday weekend. The severe weather killed at least 23 people in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama and Kentucky.
![Local residents walk through the remains of a home damaged by a tornado on Wednesday, May 22, 2024, in Greenfield, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5742x5739+1316+0/resize/100/quality/100/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F5b%2F36%2Fe54977dd400d9c0311f1a30cd43c%2Fap24143646530084.jpg)
Earlier this week, a deadly tornado struck Iowa.
At a news conference Monday, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said four people in four counties have died since storms tore through the state on Sunday. Late Monday, Beshear confirmed a fifth storm-related death.
The small southwestern Kentucky town of Charleston took direct damage from the tornado, officials said.
Beshear said the twister appears to have been on the ground for 40 miles.
“It could have been a lot worse,” Beshear said of this weekend’s storm. “Kentuckians know everything we’ve been through.”
Damage also occurred Sunday night east of Charleston, part of Hopkins County, Kentucky. Western Kentucky, including several communities in Hopkins County, endured a series of devastating tornadoes in 2021 that claimed 81 lives.
“There were a lot of people trying to get their lives back on track,” Hopkins County Emergency Management Director Nick Bailey said, according to the Associated Press. “Almost the same place, same house, everything is the same.”
The website Poweroutage.us reported power outages for hundreds of thousands of people on Monday. As of 5:30 p.m. ET, more than 120,000 customers were without power in Kentucky, according to the website. Arkansas and West Virginia each had more than 40,000 customers without electricity, according to the data.
The White House said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was on the scene conducting a damage assessment along with state and local authorities. President Biden has directed federal agencies to provide assistance as needed.
The weekend storm also put a halt to holiday travel.
![Motorists travel west along Interstate 40 in Nashville, Tennessee, Thursday, May 23, 2024.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2000x2000+500+0/resize/100/quality/100/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F65%2Faa%2Fa2f8e0b045a79f8a847bac34e171%2Fgettyimages-2154490440.jpg)
As of 5:30 p.m. Monday, more than 400 flights in the U.S. were canceled and more than 5,200 were delayed, according to flight tracking website Flight Aware. New York's LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty Airport in New Jersey were the most affected by delays and cancellations.