Tornadoes, heavy rains rip across central, southern US

Tornadoes on Wednesday ripped across a wide swath of the central and southern United States, destroying homes and businesses and bringing down power lines and trees.

According to the National Weather Service, NWS, there has been no fewer than 15 reports of tornadoes in at least four states by late Wednesday.

At the time of filing this report, there were no immediate reports of fatalities because of the storm, which also brought hail and torrential rain.

The NWS said…