Severe storms, tornadoes rip Midwest, South

Thunderstorms crawled across a large swath of the Midwest and South on Thursday, spawning suspected tornadoes in Missouri and Texas, and slamming several states with large hail and heavy rain that prompted a handful of water rescues. Today, the severe weather threat will shift east, extending from the Gulf Coast north to the Upper Ohio Valley, according to the National Weather Service. The main threat will be thunderstorms with damaging straight-line winds and hail. Heavy precipitation is possible throughout the severe weather threat area, as well as in the Northeast.