FOXNews.com: State of emergency declared in Mo. after tornadoes - EXTREME WEATHER CENTER

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State of emergency declared in Mo. after tornadoes - EXTREME WEATHER CENTER Apr 11th 2013, 06:35 April, 10, 2013: Icy branches partially block a city street and fall amid parked cars, Wednesday, April 10, 2013, in Sioux Falls, S.D.AP Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency Wednesday night as a system of strong storms and tornadoes tore through the Midwest, causing damage across the region. Fox2Now reports at least three confirmed tornadoes have touched down in the St. Louis metro area, causing damage across the city and leaving many without power. "This was a strong system of storms that caused damage to communities in several areas of our state," Gov. Nixon said in a statement obtained by Fox News. "We will continue to work closely with local officials to assess damages and provide any needed assistance." Storms packing snow, ice and dangerous winds also knocked out power in communities in other area across the Midwest, prompting Minnesota's governor to call out the state National Guard on to help residents. Icy weather left thousands of people in Minnesota in the dark, while another storm threatened to dump several inches of wet snow in the state by Thursday. Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton said the weather was taxing the resources of local and county governments, and he issued an executive order activating the guard. The town of Worthington was using backup diesel generators to power sections of the city at a time, public utilities manager Scott Hain told Minnesota Public Radio. Roughly a quarter to a third of the city of about 13,000 people was without power at any given time, he said. "With the generation that we have available, we are conducting rolling blackouts through the community," Hain said. "From what we're hearing from the folks that own the transmission that's down right now, is we expect that we'll be operating under this same scenario at least through the rest of today and possibly into tomorrow as well." The National Weather Service said southwestern Minnesota could get 8 or 9 inches of snow by Thursday morning, while 8 to 14 inches was forecast for a large swath of southern Minnesota, including the Twin Cities, St. Cloud, Willmar and Mankato starting Wednesday night and into Thursday. A tornado was reported to have touched down near Botkinburg in north-central Arkansas, said John Robinson, the warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in North Little Rock. Four people were injured. Residents in eastern South Dakota were hunkering down Wednesday for the second wave of a spring storm that already downed power lines and closed roads, schools and businesses. Tens of thousands of residents in that part of the state remained without power as they awaited more bad weather. Freezing drizzle was expected to give way Wednesday night to 6 to 12 inches of snow accompanied by winds of 15 to 25 miles per hour, said Philip Schumacher, a National Weather Service meteorologist. The weather service said the challenging weather could extend into flood-prone southeastern North Dakota, where about 3 to 5 inches of snow is expected through late Thursday. Although it could contain at least one-quarter inch of liquid, weather service officials said it should not change the current flood forecast. "Any additional precipitation at this stage in the game is not necessarily a good thing," said Peter Rogers, a weather service meteorologist in Grand Forks. "But we're not expecting that to have an immediate impact on the rivers either." In Wisconsin, rain, ice and snow caused minor flooding Wednesday in areas including the Rock River at Afton and Newville, Crawfish River at Milford, Sheboygan River at Sheboygan, and Manitowoc River at Manitowoc. Wisconsin Emergency Management spokesman Tod Pritchard said another wave of freezing rain could sweep across central Wisconsin from La Crosse to Green Bay from late Wednesday into Thursday. That rain could cause more flooding in the region. Click for more from Fox2Now.com.  The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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