Tornadoes Reported in South and Midwest Amid Powerful Storm System

Multiple tornadoes were reported to have touched down across parts of the South and the Midwest on Wednesday, knocking down trees, disrupting power and damaging homes and businesses, as the regions braced for a powerful storm system over the next several days.

The National Weather Service issued tornado warnings on Wednesday across an area that stretched from northeastern Arkansas to Central Illinois.

“TAKE COVER NOW!” the Weather Service said in its tornado warning alerts.

A tornado was reported to have touched down in Nevada, Mo., on Wednesday. Gary Edwards, city manager of Nevada said there was “extensive damage,” and that an assessment was underway. “While storm sirens were blaring, the tornado skipped through town causing extensive damage where it touched down,” Mr. Edwards said in an email. There were no reports of fatalities and only one injury, he said.

The National Weather Service said that it had visual confirmation that a tornado had touched down in Almyra, Ark., a largely rural area, on Wednesday.

Lacey Kanipe, a public information officer with the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management, said the agency had received reports of tornadoes on the ground. “We are working with local emergency management offices for situational awareness and still learning of impacts as they come in,” Ms. Kanipe said.

Tornado watches were also in effect for millions of residents across parts of Arkansas, Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi.

The storm system originated on the West Coast on Monday and churned across the Plains on Tuesday. But forecasters predicted that the system’s most widespread and severe threat was “widespread” thunderstorms that could produce destructive winds, large hail and significant long-track tornadoes across an area stretching from Illinois, Indiana and Ohio to Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas.

Forecasters have warned that the storm system generating the tornadoes was expected to stall by Thursday, prompting the government forecasters to issue their highest alert for flooding over this same area, as more than a foot of rain may fall over the next five days.

The relentless rain may lead to “significant and potentially historic” rainfall totals of 10 to 15 inches, which could create a “generational flooding” event, particularly in a region stretching from northeast Arkansas through western Tennessee, western Kentucky and into southern Indiana, forecasters said.

Nazaneen Ghaffarand Judson Jones contributed reporting.