LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (Reuters) – Tornadoes and flooding, which killed at least 10 people in Arkansas this week, threatened more destruction in the mid-South and Ohio Valley region Tuesday night into Wednesday, forecasters said.

As of 9 p.m. local time Tuesday, 24 tornadoes had been reported, with extensive damage in Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas, according to AccuWeather.com

An 18-wheel tractor trailer was blown off the road in Coy, Ark., a rural area about 28 miles east of Little Rock, and a person was trapped inside, local officials reported.

Storm damage also was reported at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, Ark., in the western part of the state.

"It's a very dangerous day," said AccuWeather.com senior meteorologist Henry Margusity, quoted on the AccuWeather web site. "It's the kind of day where tornadoes could cause massive destruction."

Floods also remain a big concern in several states, where days of rain and the snowmelt from the winter's heavy snows have caused rising rivers and saturated soils.

On Tuesday, the levee on the swollen Black River near Poplar Bluff in southeastern Missouri was breached south of the city, local officials said.

More than 1,000 people were evacuated on fears of flash flooding. Authorities continued to help people leave their homes on Tuesday afternoon as the river overflowed the levee.

"We are continuing our efforts to get them out of harm's way," said Butler County Sheriff Mark Dobbs.

So far, no more injuries or deaths have been reported.

A three-year-old girl was killed early on Tuesday in Mississippi after an oak tree fell on her family's home during storms that brought 70 mph winds, said Jeff Rent, director of external affairs for the state's Emergency Management Agency.

Ten people were killed in Arkansas from Monday's storms and flooding -- six from flood waters and four from a tornado that hit the town of Vilonia. About 41,000 Arkansas residents were still without power as of Tuesday night.

Some of the same towns still recovering from tornadoes that ripped through Arkansas on Monday may be struck again.

The storms and flooding were the latest in the violent weather that has pummeled much of the mid-South this month. Two weeks ago more than 47 people died as storms tore a wide path from Oklahoma all the way to North Carolina.

CONCERNS THROUGH THE NIGHT

Night-time storm violence was seen afresh last Friday as a tornado blew out dozens of windows at Lambert Airport in St Louis, downing power lines and flattening many buildings.

The greatest threat of more violent storms on Tuesday evening was a region stretching from northeast Texas to Memphis, Tennessee, according to John Hart, meteorologist with the National Storm Prediction Center.

The threat will continue through the night, moving into the Mississippi Valley by daybreak, he said.

On Wednesday, Hart added, more severe weather with the possibility of strong tornadoes is expected from Ohio southward through the Tennessee Valley and into portions of Mississippi and Alabama.

Flooding is an concern along rivers in Arkansas, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, southern Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee, prompting evacuations of hundreds of people.

More than 200 Indiana National Guardsman and 30 inmates are assisting with sandbagging efforts, according to the state's Department of Homeland Security.

In southern Illinois, 325,000 sandbags were placed at a facility in Carbondale for quick deployment if floods threatened, the state's emergency management agency said.

Many towns have flooding along the Ohio River from Cincinnati several hundred miles southwest to the Mississippi River, said National Weather Service meteorologist Robert Szappanos in Louisville, Kentucky.

Some areas of Kentucky may get another six inches of rain, said Buddy Rogers, spokesman for the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management.

One problem for towns along the Ohio River is that the Mississippi and the Ohio are flooding at the same time, so the Ohio, which usually drains into the bigger river, can't drain, Rogers said.

To prevent flooding in Cairo, Illinois, located at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to detonate the levee at Birds Point on the Mississippi, according to the Missouri Attorney General.

But the attorney general has sued in federal court to intervene, saying the action could flood 130,000 acres of farmland in that state.

Late Tuesday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it could probably hold off making a final decision on the controversial plan until Saturday, after the National Weather Service lowered its forecast for flooding on the Mississippi by half a foot.

In Tennessee, many school systems were closed Tuesday due to power outages and trees blocking roadways, especially in an area northwest of Nashville hit hard by Monday storms.

Flood warnings were in effect along the Cumberland and its tributaries.

(Additional reporting by Susan Guyett, Tim Ghianni, Leigh Coleman, Kevin Murphy and James B. Kelleher; Writing by Barbara Goldberg and Mary Wisniewski; Editing by Peter Bohan and Jerry Norton)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – With Americans upset over rising gasoline prices, Republicans in Congress aim to fix the blame on one person when they return next week from recess: President Barack Obama.

Congress wrapped up its last work session on April 15 with Democrats and Republicans in a blistering debate over budget deficits and the size of the federal government.

Now, Republican leaders in the House of Representatives aim to pivot to another hot-button issue: high gasoline prices that are hitting consumers who are already struggling to recover from a prolonged economic downturn.

"Running on empty: Obama administration does nothing to address skyrocketing gas prices," screamed a press release on Tuesday from House Speaker John Boehner's office.

The Republicans' focus on energy comes as the national retail price for regular gasoline has hit $3.88 a gallon, more than $1 a gallon more than a year ago.

Gas pump sticker shock could get worse as the looming U.S. summer driving season hikes demand for gasoline and political unrest continues in Middle East oil-producing countries.

All this has U.S. motorists worried that gasoline prices could approach the record-high $4.11 per gallon of July 2008.

Boehner's move to put a bull's eye on gasoline prices also comes as public opinion polls show opposition to Republican initiatives that would further cut taxes for the rich while making senior citizens pay more for health insurance.

A CBS News/New York Times poll, for example, found that 61 percent of people think Medicare coverage for the elderly is worth the costs. Meanwhile, 45 percent said military spending should be cut while only 21 percent favored Medicare cuts.

When Congress resumes next week, the Republican-led House will bring to a vote at least one bill aimed at bolstering domestic energy production.

"As gasoline prices close in on $4 a gallon, that is going to be part of the conversation," said Spencer Pederson, a spokesman for the House Natural Resources Committee.

Doc Hastings, chairman of that committee, is leading Republican efforts to expand U.S. offshore oil drilling while easing some industry regulations -- moves that are expected to be blocked by Obama and his fellow Democrats in the Senate.

'LOST OIL'

The Republicans believe Obama wrongfully stood in the way of offshore oil drilling because of safety concerns following last year's BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Gulf of Mexico oil output will decline by 190,000 barrels per day in 2011, according to Energy Department forecasts.

"That's lost oil on the world market," leading to higher prices, Pederson said. That quantity, however, is only a speck of the estimated 1.52 million barrel per day increase in global demand this year.

The 2012 presidential and congressional elections are 18 months away, but they already dominate the Washington dynamic.

On Monday, House Speaker John Boehner, interviewed by ABC News, predicted Obama would not win a second term if gasoline prices were to rise to $5 or $6 a gallon.

While the White House would quarrel with that assessment, Democrats are worried rising energy prices could undermine the U.S. economic recovery and hurt Obama's re-election chances.

In an interview with a Virginia radio station on Tuesday, Obama said his administration was "talking to oil producers around the world and letting them know it's in their interest to make sure that high oil prices don't end up hurting the world economy."

Oil producing countries, he said, should ramp up their production to moderate gasoline prices.

Obama also urged Congress to end oil and gas industry tax breaks that cost billions of dollars.

Senator Charles Schumer, one of the top-ranking Democrats, backed up Obama's call saying: "These subsidies are a relic of a time when oil was $17 per barrel and oil companies needed incentives to drill. That time has long since ended."

Oil prices are now around $112 per barrel.

Obama's request to Congress came after Boehner said that "we should be looking at" the multibillion-dollar subsidies for oil companies and that those companies "ought to be paying their fair share" in taxes.

But by Tuesday, it was less clear whether Boehner really wanted to switch Republican gears and consider pulling the oil company subsidies.

"We'll look at any reasonable policy that lowers gas prices. Unfortunately, what the president has suggested so far would simply raise taxes and increase the price at the pump," said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel.

(Editing by Laura MacInnis)

MIAMI (Reuters) – The 2011 Atlantic hurricane season will be active with the energy-rich U.S. Gulf Coast facing a significant threat of a hurricane landfall, a leading private weather forecaster predicted on Tuesday.

The forecast by Weather Services International follows one of the busiest seasons on record last year that saw intense levels of storm and hurricane activity but no direct hit on the U.S. coastline.

WSI slightly lowered its December forecast, calling for 15 named storms and eight hurricanes. Four are expected to strengthen into major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale, it said.

"While we expect less overall activity this year, we do expect a much more impactful season along the U.S. coastline," WSI's chief meteorologist Todd Crawford said in a statement.

Other private forecasters have made similar predictions for the 2011 season set to begin June 1 and run through November 30.

The La Nina phenomenon, which fosters hurricane formation, is weakening faster than expected and prompted WSI to lower its prediction, Crawford said.

The 2010 season spawned 19 named storms, tying for the third most active season with 1887 and 1995, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. Twelve storms grew into hurricanes last year, making it the second-highest season tied with the year 1969.

NO LANDFALLS SINCE 2008

The U.S. coastline has been spared a direct hit since 2008. Last year, Hurricane Earl, which grew into a Category 4 hurricane, came the closest by approaching to about 100 miles off North Carolina and southern New England in September.

"Our recent good fortune in avoiding landfalling hurricanes is not likely to last," Crawford said.

Projection models, he said, showed the western states on the U.S. coast of the Gulf of Mexico, where major oil and gas installations are located, facing "sharply increased" chances of a landfall this year.

Crawford predicted two or three hurricanes could come ashore.

"The U.S. has not had a three-year stretch without a hurricane landfall since the 1860s," he added.

A change in weather conditions is also increasing chances of an hurricane making impact on the U.S. coastline, according to Crawford.

Pockets of low pressure in the Atlantic helped to shield the U.S. East Coast from direct hits last year, but are not expected to be present later this summer when storm activity intensifies, he said.

Warmer sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean may also help storms develop more easily there instead of farther out in the Atlantic, Crawford added.

"Storms developing in the Gulf and the Caribbean are a much greater threat to make landfall along the U.S. coast than those that develop off the coast of Africa," he said.

WSI said its forecast numbers were similar to the 2008 season when Hurricanes Dolly, Gustav and Ike impacted Louisiana and Texas.

(Editing by Tom Brown and Lisa Shumaker)