At least nine dead as parts of the US are hit by severe weather

Much of the US faced another round of biting winter weather on Sunday with torrential rains causing intense flooding in Kentucky and resulting in at least nine deaths in the south-east of the country.

The Northern Plains faced life-threatening cold, and tornado watches were issued for parts of Georgia and Florida.

Kentucky governor Andy Beshear said at least eight people had died in the state. A further death was reported in Atlanta, Georgia.

Mr Beshear said on Sunday that hundreds of people stranded by flooding had to be rescued.

President Donald Trump approved the state’s request for a disaster declaration, authorising the Federal Emergency Management Agency to co-ordinate relief efforts throughout the state.

A mother and her seven-year-old child were killed when the car they were in was swept away by flood waters in Hart County near Interstate 65, a county official told WBKO-TV.

Hart County coroner Tony Roberts said the two were swept away on Saturday night in the Bonnieville community.

In south-eastern Kentucky, a 73-year-old man was found dead in floodwaters in Clay County, county emergency management deputy director Revelle Berry said.

Parts of Kentucky and Tennessee received up to six inches (15 centimetres) of rain during the weekend storms, said Bob Oravec, a senior forecaster with the National Weather Service (NWS).

“The effects will continue for awhile, a lot of swollen streams and a lot of flooding going on,” Mr Oravec said on Sunday.

“Any time there’s flooding, the flooding can last a lot longer than the rain lasts.”

Severe storms also swept through parts of Florida and Georgia, where tornado watches were in effect early on Sunday, the National Weather Service said.

In Atlanta, a person was killed when an “extremely large tree” fell on a home early on Sunday, according to Atlanta fire rescue captain Scott Powell.

Elsewhere, bone-chilling cold is expected for the Northern Plains with low temperatures around minus 35C near the Canadian border.

Dangerously cold wind chill temperatures in the Dakotas and Minnesota of minus 40C to minus 45.6C are expected.

Heavy snowfall amounts were expected in parts of New England and northern New York. In some areas, wind gusts could reach 60 mph and create “hazardous whiteout conditions”, the NWS said.