Jackie and Shadow, the Big Bear bald eagle couple whose parenting journey has been livestreamed to the world, appear to be missing one of the three eaglets that hatched this season.

Video of the nest posted to social media Thursday afternoon showed three baby birds in the nest being fed by their parents.

But as of Friday, only two eaglets appeared to be in Jackie and Shadow’s nest, according to the Big Bear Bald Eagle Live Nest Cam.

It’s not clear what happened to the third eaglet, but Friends of Big Bear Valley said late on Friday that it was possible the remains of the missing chick may have been observed in the nest bowl.

“We are waiting for more clear visuals to confirm,” read the statement,” adding that the view into the nest bowl is partially obstructed by snow.

“We know that both the possibility and the uncertainty are hard to hear,” the organization said in an update. “We share these feelings with all of you.”

At daybreak on Saturday, an eagle could be seen feeding just two eaglets a dead frog.

Jackie laid three eggs at the end of January, according to Big Bear, and all three hatched last week.

The first hatched March 3, the second on March 4, and the third a few days later.

It is unclear which of the three birds is missing.

At least three people have died as a powerful system of storms sweeps across the a wide swathe of the central and southern of the United States, with another three killed in vehicle crashes as blinding winds whipped through Texas and Oklahoma.

From the southern Plains to the Midwest an estimated 138 million people are at risk of severe weather, with tornado warnings issued in parts of Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana and Tennessee.

The storm system has left buildings in ruins, wrecked power supplies, and intensified more than 100 wildfires.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol said on X that a tornado had caused two deaths in the Bakersfield area in Ozark County, with reports of multiple injuries. It posted pictures of wrecked and ruined buildings, and a smashed up car on the roadside.

Another person died in Butler County, on Missouri’s border with Arkansas, after a mobile home was hit by extreme weather on Friday night, the county’s rescue services told NBC News.

Butler County Emergency Management said the number of fatalities there may rise, with the search and rescue operations at the site ongoing.

In the Texas Panhandle, three people were killed by car crashes caused by a a dust storm on Friday, according to Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Cindy Barkley. She said that the crashes were in the Amarillo area, and blamed high winds and low visibility.

Millions remain at risk as the storm carves a path through the region.

More than 300,000 customers are without power across the Midwest and South, according to PowerOutage.us, an organization that aggregates live power outage data.

Nearly half a dozen tornadoes were reported in Missouri alone.

Tornadoes were reported to have ripped down trees and power lines in the state, according to the National Weather Service, and NBC affiliate KSDK of St. Louis reported that businesses were damaged and tractor-trailers were overturned.

Tornadoes were also reported in Arkansas and Mississippi. The reports are unconfirmed; storm survey teams typically determine later whether tornadoes actually occurred. The weather service for Jackson, Mississippi, shared a photo on X of what was said to be a large wedge tornado north of Cruger.

Footage circulating on social media and verified by NBC News showed the mangled remains of a fuel station outside a 10Box store in Poplar Bluff, Missouri.

Other photos posted by the Missouri Highway Patrol showed storm damage in Rolla, Missouri, around 95 miles southwest of St. Louis, and to a bus barn in Dixon.

Strong nighttime tornadoes at EF2 on the tornado strength scale, defined by sustained winds of 113 to 157 mph, are possible from southern Iowa to Jackson, Mississippi.

The worst of the system is also threatening damaging winds and hail into Saturday. Hail the size of baseballs was reported in Christian County, Missouri, on Friday night, the weather service said.

Widespread tornado, severe weather risk

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe declared a state of emergency on Friday as the state prepared for the front’s unstable air overnight. The declaration will allow state resources to reach local governments quicker, his office said.

“I urge all Missourians to stay alert, monitor weather forecasts, and follow official warnings,” he said.

Florissant, Missouri, Mayor Timothy Lowery told KSDK that “we’ve got a lot of damage” in the city, including to many houses. A tree also fell on landmark restaurant Hendel’s, the station reported.

“So, tonight’s been, I’ll say a very horrible night here in the city of Florissant,” Lowery said.

Police in St. Louis warned late Friday that there were reports of vehicles getting trapped in high water, and urged people to “Turn around don’t drown!”

Tornado watches were issued for parts of Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee until at least 3 a.m. CT, with some watches extended until 5 a.m.

A tornado outbreak across the central Gulf Coast states into the Tennessee Valley was also likely late Saturday. Significant tornadoes were possible in eastern Louisiana, in Mississippi, and in Alabama.

Strong winds and fires in Texas, Oklahoma

In Texas, blowing dust blinded drivers with deadly consequences, officials said.

Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Cindy Barkley said Friday that there were three fatal crashes in the Amarillo area due to high winds and low visibility. The number of deaths was not immediately clear.

One person died and two others were injured in a crash between three semis and four other vehicles in Palmer County, said Cesar Marquez, city manager and fire chief in Bovina. It was not clear if the crash was included in the three in the Amarillo area.

There was “so much blowing dirt we were getting shocked every time we got near something,” Marquez said.

Parts of northern Texas saw gusts as strong as 62 mph, according to National Weather Service data.

Potter County Fire-Rescue reported four roads were restricted or closed after separate incidents in which big-rigs had “flipped.” The county in the Texas Panhandle includes the northern half of Amarillo.

“Visibility is poor at best and zero in places,” the agency said on social media. “If you don’t have to be out, please stay where you are.”

The dust was not the only concern. The same system whipped up wildfires in Texas and Oklahoma on Friday as the low pressure system moved east.

The largest of the state’s six active wildfires, the Windmill Fire in Roberts County, grew from 500 to 18,000 acres in less than a day, according to Texas A&M Forest Service. The blaze was 50% contained Friday night.

The Rest Area Fire in Gray County marched across 4,500 acres on Friday, but its expansion stopped by early evening, Texas A&M Forest Service said. Firefighters had achieved 30% containment by the end of the day, it said.

Texas A&M Forest Service said on Thursday conditions may be right for a Southern Great Plains Wildfire Outbreak, a dangerous weather formula based in part on low humidity and gusty wind, though such an outbreak was not officially declared by Friday afternoon.

Multiple fires were burning in Oklahoma on Friday night.

Gov. Kevin Stitt urged residents covered by mandatory evacuations in Mannford, a city in the northeastern portion of the state were wildfire raged Friday night, to “leave now.”

Mandatory evacuations were also in effect for parts of Norman, where multiple wildfires were burning, according to the Norman Police Department.

Mandatory evacuations in the city of Stillwater were expanding late Friday, with locations including a Walmart and multiple hotels, and cover “several square miles.”

The winds have apparently also helped fuel multiple structure fires in the city, and firefighting reinforcements are en route, it said in a statement.

The National Weather Service office in Norman said earlier that “a dangerous wildfire outbreak” was underway, later identifying blazes near Chickasha, Chandler, Camargo and Leedey; and near Lake Carl Blackwell, where residents were urged to evacuate. There was also one in Lincoln County, where evacuations were ordered north of the town of Meridian.

Weather system to shift east

The low pressure system is affecting the southern and northern reaches of the nation’s midsection as it pushes eastward, promising upheaval into the eastern U.S. through the end of the weekend.

As it moves into the Eastern Seaboard on Sunday, the tornado threat will shift to Virginia and Carolinas.

On the northern side of the front, including the upper Midwest and the northern Plains, blizzard conditions were forecast for the weekend, with 8 inches of snow possible in some regions.

The new week was expected to bring even more winter storm action when at least two more low pressure systems march eastward, the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center said.

The first of the two would likely form a solid, counterclockwise winter storm, a process the weather service calls cyclogenesis, it said. It will likely bring snow to the interior, including the Midwest and Great Lakes, with a second storm likely to bring a fresh wave of snow, rain and thunderstorms to a stretch of the nation from the Rocky Mountains to the Upper Midwest mid- to late-week ahead of the first day of astronomical spring on Thursday.

LINCOLN HEIGHTS, Ohio — Nearly every morning for the last month, Jay has been waking up before sunrise to drive around the streets of Lincoln Heights, patrolling neighborhood bus stops to make sure children are getting to school safely.

“We have a very tight community, so all of our kids, they know us,” he said.

But for anyone outside the community, Jay’s presence might be a mystery. He wears a face covering along with tactical vests, and Jay is not his real name, which he asked not to use to prevent harassment from hate groups.

He’s a member of the Lincoln Heights Safety and Watch program, an initiative that started shortly after Feb. 7, when a neo-Nazi group waving swastika flags and shouting racial slurs demonstrated on a highway overpass just on the edge of this majority-Black community about 30 minutes north of Cincinnati.

Officers from Evendale, which borders Lincoln Heights, and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office both responded that day. No arrests were made, and Evendale police officers did not take down any names or identifying information from members of the neo-Nazi group, according to the mayor’s office. The Hamilton County Prosecutor’s office is currently investigating the incident to see if criminal charges could be filed. 

In a statement, Evendale Mayor Richard Finan said officers’ emphasis on de-escalation “resulted in the incident’s resolution without injuries to any of the persons involved, passersby or law enforcement officers. During this evolving scene, protecting life took priority over immediate identification.” The Evendale Police Department was the first to respond to the incident, which took place on a bridge linking Evendale with Lincoln Heights.

But for Daronce Daniels, the safety and watch group’s spokesperson, the police response was just as alarming as the neo-Nazi appearance, making residents feel they wouldn’t be protected if another hate group were to visit their town. 

“They’ve been very clear that if it happens again, they’ll allow it to happen again, that their hands are tied,” Daniels said.

Lincoln Heights residents said the police response to the incident was insufficient, prompting Daniels and other members of the Heights Movement, an existing community empowerment organization, to devise the safety and watch program, which includes armed volunteers wearing tactical gear and face coverings. Some of the same volunteers who helped mentor youth through the Heights Movement are now going on armed patrols. Ohio state law allows anyone legally allowed to own a gun to open carry without a permit.

“I’ve never felt safer as a Black man in my community than I have right now,” Daniels said. “These are my friends. These are my cousins, my brothers, my sisters, my aunties.”

Local business owner Eric Ruffin was accosted in his car by the neo-Nazi group as he was coming home from a work meeting.

He said he supports law enforcement, but that its handling of the Feb. 7 demonstration doesn’t give him faith that it will protect him in the future. For that reason, he says he’s proud of the neighborhood safety and watch program, even though he wishes it weren’t needed.

“What I don’t understand is how I can be standing here in America in 2025 and somebody can walk up to my window with a swastika and have guns and call me the N-word and law enforcement watch,” Ruffin said.

“We don’t want to become what we hate. You know, we don’t want to become a group of people that walk around feeling like we have a reason in America to have to protect ourselves. That’s what the Nazis want.”

The village of Lincoln Heights was formed in 1923 for Black families escaping the South, and it incorporated in 1946 as the “first African American self-governing community north of the Mason-Dixon Line,” according to the town’s website. However, residents say the community has been underserved by local municipalities, and its police department was disbanded in 2014, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer, leaving it under the jurisdiction of the Hamilton County Sheriff. 

For many safety and watch volunteers, that history plays a role in their decision to add to their everyday duties as parents and workers.

“It’s just something that our grandfathers and our great-grandmothers — they started this. So we’re going to make sure that that history stays intact,” said one volunteer, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from hate groups.

Yard signs that read “We Support Lincoln Heights Safety & Watch” are peppered throughout the town, and community members could be seen waving to safety and watch volunteers as they stood guard near the local elementary school one Tuesday morning.

Chantelle Phillips said she saw the neo-Nazi rally playing out on social media as it happened. She said she trusts the neighborhood protection group to be more proactive than officers with the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, whose jurisdiction includes Lincoln Heights.

“I feel like it’s more secure now,” Phillips said. “I know my son can walk home and be OK.”

Hamilton County Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey is now calling on the Ohio state Legislature to pass laws that make it illegal to wear a mask “for the purpose of intimidation” while open carrying. She said this measure would have given her officers more leeway to make arrests during the neo-Nazi rally.

In an interview with NBC News, she defended her officers’ response on Feb. 7 but said she understands why Lincoln Heights residents are concerned for their safety. Still, she worries that an armed confrontation between neighborhood residents and another hate group could lead to a dangerous situation.

“They feel they need to arm their residents, and they’re allowed to,” McGuffey said. “At some point, we are going to likely face a very dangerous situation that we are trained to handle. But the unknown is, who else is armed? How many juveniles are standing around with a gun in their hand? I cannot be more emphatic that this issue that we’re embedded in, and the way that people are reacting and acting with guns with open carry is directly related to the inaction of legislators who say they support law enforcement, who say they support families and order, and they do not.”