At least nine people, including a child, were dead after a severe rainstorm pounded a large section of the South and left hundreds of thousands of people without power on Sunday morning and communities contending with flash flooding.

In Tennessee, the National Weather Service in Memphis issued a flash flood emergency on Sunday afternoon after a levee along the community of Rives failed, causing “rapid onset flooding” there and the surrounding areas.

“Get to high ground now,’’ the Weather Service warned on social media. Rives, which is northeast of Memphis, has a population about 300. Several area fire departments deployed crews to help. The Tipton County Fire Department said that about 200 people needed to be rescued.

The levee was designed to hold back the Obion River, a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for maintaining the levee.

Kentucky was hit particularly hard by the rain and at least eight people died there because of the storms, Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky said at a news conference on Sunday. He said that officials expected the death toll to rise.

He said there had been more than 1,000 rescues and there were more than 300 road closures.

The governor said weather conditions were still dangerous in the state.

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