Days of unrelenting heavy rain and storms that killed at least 18 people worsened flooding as some rivers rose to near-record levels and inundated towns across an already saturated U.S. South and parts of the Midwest.

Cities ordered evacuations and rescue crews in inflatable boats checked on residents in Kentucky and Tennessee, while utilities shut off power and gas in a region stretching from Texas to Ohio.

“As long as I’ve been alive — and I’m 52 — this is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” said Wendy Quire, the general manager at the Brown Barrel restaurant in downtown Frankfort, Kentucky, the state capital built around the swollen Kentucky River.

“The rain just won’t stop,” Quire said Sunday. “It’s been nonstop for days and days.”

Officials diverted traffic and turned off utilities to businesses in the city as the river was expected to crest above 49 feet Monday to a record-setting level, said Frankfort Mayor Layne Wilkerson. The city’s flood wall system is designed to withstand 51 feet of water.

For many, there was a sense of dread that the worst was still to come.

“This flooding is an act of God,” said Kevin Gordon, a front desk clerk at the Ashbrook Hotel in downtown Frankfort. The hotel was offering discounted stays to affected locals.

Storms leaving devastating impact

The 18 reported deaths since the storms began on Wednesday included 10 in Tennessee. A 9-year-old boy in Kentucky was caught up in floodwaters while walking to catch his school bus. A 5-year-old boy in Arkansas died after a tree fell on his family’s home, police said. A 16-year-old volunteer Missouri firefighter died in a crash while seeking to rescue people caught in the storm.

The National Weather Service warned Sunday that dozens of locations in multiple states were expected to reach a “major flood stage,” with extensive flooding of structures, roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure possible.

In north-central Kentucky, emergency officials ordered a mandatory evacuation for Falmouth and Butler, towns near the bend of the rising Licking River. Thirty years ago, the river reached a record 50 feet (15 meters), resulting in five deaths and 1,000 homes destroyed.

The storms come after the Trump administration cut jobs at NWS forecast offices, leaving half of them with vacancy rates of about 20%, or double the level of a decade ago.

Why so much nasty weather?

Forecasters attributed the violent weather to warm temperatures, an unstable atmosphere, strong winds and abundant moisture streaming from the Gulf.

The NWS said 5.06 inches (nearly 13 centimeters) of rain fell Saturday in Jonesboro, Arkansas — making it the wettest day ever recorded in April in the city. Memphis, Tennessee, received 14 inches (35 centimeters) of rain from Wednesday to Sunday, the NWS said.

Rives, a northwestern Tennessee town of about 200 people, was almost entirely underwater after the Obion River overflowed.

Domanic Scott went to check on his father in Rives after not hearing from him in a house where water reached the doorstep.

“It’s the first house we’ve ever paid off. The insurance companies around here won’t give flood insurance to anyone who lives in Rives because we’re too close to the river and the levees. So if we lose it, we’re kind of screwed without a house,” Scott said.

In Dyersburg, Tennessee, dozens of people arrived over the weekend at a storm shelter near a public school clutching blankets, pillows and other necessities. Just days earlier the city was hit by a tornado that caused millions of dollars in damage.

Among them was George Manns, 77, who said he was in his apartment when he heard a tornado warning and decided to head to the shelter. Just days earlier the city was hit by a tornado that caused millions of dollars in damage.

“I grabbed all my stuff and came here,” said Mann, who brought a folding chair, two bags of toiletries, laptops, iPads and medications: “I don’t leave them in my apartment in case my apartment is destroyed.”

For others, grabbing the essentials also meant taking a closer look at the liquor cabinet.

In Frankfort, with water rising up to his window sills, resident Bill Jones fled his home in a boat, which he loaded with several boxes of bottles of bourbon.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• US stocks are poised to continue their scorching free fall as futures signaled more fear over President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Administration officials on Sunday signaled that they won’t back down from their aggressive stance. Meanwhile, an inflation report is due later this week as well as bank earnings.

Wall Street remained in fear mode over President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Sunday evening as futures pointed to more steep losses.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures tumbled 1,468 points, or 3.8%, while S&P 500 futures sank 4.3% and Nasdaq futures dived 4.9%. That follows a devastating week that saw the worst selloff since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 10-year Treasury yield was flat at 4%, and US crude oil prices fell 3.3% to $59.95 a barrel.

On Wednesday, Trump announced a minimum tariff rate of 10% and higher rates for 57 economies like China (34%), the European Union (20%), and Japan (24%). Fitch Ratings estimated that the effective tariff rate could hit 25% on average — the highest in more than 115 years.

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers aired caution in an X post on Sunday, saying there’s a very good chance of more market turbulence similar to what was seen on Thursday and Friday.

Those sessions represented the fourth largest two-day drop in the last 85 years, Summer said. The selloff wiped out about $6 trillion in market cap.

“A drop of this magnitude signals that there’s likely to be trouble ahead, and people ought to be very cautious,” Summers wrote. 

Meanwhile, Trump administration on Sunday officials sought to ease concerns about financial markets and the economy.

National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told ABC News that more than 50 countries have reached out to the White House to negotiate on tariffs.

But for now, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the tariffs will remain and won’t be postponed. While the minimum 10% tariff took effect early Saturday, the individualized levies will go into place Wednesday.

“They are definitely going to stay in place for days and weeks,” he told CBS.

In response to Trump’s sweeping tariffs, JPMorgan now sees a recession, with GDP shrinking 0.3% this year. But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday there doesn’t have to be a recession and called the stock selloff a short-term reaction.

“One thing that I can tell you, as the Treasury secretary, what I’ve been very impressed with is the market infrastructure, that we had record volume on Friday. And everything is working very smoothly so the American people, they can take great comfort in that,” he told NBC.

Bessent also gave no indication that Trump will back off from this aggressive tariffs.

On Friday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned that sweeping tariffs could push inflation higher, cooling anticipation for an imminent interest rate cut. 

Markets will get an inflation update on Thursday, when the consumer price index report for March will come out, giving insight into where inflation was headed before the latest tariffs hit. 

Additionally, earnings season for first-quarter results will kick off this week as JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, and BlackRock report on Friday.

Commentary from top executives about the tariffs and their forecasts for how they will affect their companies will be under special scrutiny.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com