COLUMBIA, Tennessee — Meteorologists warned of a series of dangerous storms in the United States that could pass through southern areas on Thursday, after the previous day’s storms caused tornados damage and large hail, which killed two people in Tennessee and another in North Carolina.
The meteors continue a succession of torrential rains and tornadoes that have swept across the country this week, from the Plains to the north-central region and now the southeast. At least four people have died from bad weather since Monday.
Alerts for possible tornadoes
The National Weather Service (NWS) continued to issue tornado watches until after midnight in North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Missouri and Kentucky. Parts of Arkansas and Mississippi remained under a predawn tornado warning.
A storm that passed through northeast Tennessee on Wednesday brought high winds that downed power lines and trees. A 22-year-old man died after a tree struck his car when he was about an hour north of Knoxville, Claiborne County Sheriff Bob Brooks said.
A second person died in the Maury County town of Columbia, where the NWS said a probable tornado had touched down. Columbia is located just south of Nashville.
Homes were damaged and several people were injured, said Lynn Thompson, assistant director of Maury County 911. Thompson told The Associated Press that she could not provide further details. “We are overwhelmed right now,” she said.
Maury Regional Health hospital received five patients, including the person who died, said Rita Thompson, a spokeswoman for the facility. Another person was in serious condition and three had non-life-threatening injuries, she added.
The bad weather also caused the Federal Aviation Administration to order a temporary suspension of flights at Nashville International Airport, and the NWS activated a tornado emergency — its highest alert level — for other areas near the south of the capital. state, such as Chapel Hill and Eagleville.
Meanwhile, torrential rains and thunderstorms prompted water rescues northeast of Nashville.
“Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area affected by floods or under an evacuation order,” the National Weather Service warned when it activated a flash flood emergency.
Situation in North Carolina
In North Carolina, a state of emergency was declared Wednesday night in Gaston County, west of Charlotte, after a strong storm that downed power lines and trees, including one that fell on a car. One person who was inside the vehicle died and another was taken to the hospital, according to authorities.
Storms moved across the region on Wednesday after parts of the central United States were hit with downpours, strong winds, hail and tornadoes on Monday, including one that hit a town in Oklahoma and killed one person. On Tuesday it was the north-central region that bore the brunt of the bad weather.
Tornadoes touching down were identified in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana on Tuesday, according to the NWS.
Several tornadoes passed through southwest Michigan, in and around Kalamazoo County, according to the NWS. Governor Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency in four counties.
The Portage area of Kalamazoo County was especially hard hit. A FedEx center was destroyed and about 50 people were temporarily trapped in the facility due to downed power lines.
Travis Wycoff braved going out Tuesday night after seeing on radar that a tornado had touched down in the Portage area, and said he helped an elderly couple out of their partially destroyed home and freed a dog from service in another house.
“There were a lot of people running through the streets trying to find people and their pets,” Wycoff said. “There was a lot of chaos.”
In nearby Pavilion Township, more than a dozen homes were destroyed in a trailer park and 16 people were injured, Kalamazoo Police Chief Richard Fuller said.
Samantha Smith held a box Wednesday afternoon outside her mother’s partially destroyed home in Pavilion Township. In the box were her grandmother’s ashes. Being able to recover the most precious item gave Smith a small moment of relief from the devastation of the storm. Her parents and her brother were injured in the storm but survived, she said.
Tornadoes were also confirmed in Pennsylvania outside Pittsburgh, central Arkansas and northern West Virginia. The tornado in West Virginia was at least the 11th of the year in the state, which typically sees two on average a year.
Both the Plains and the north-central United States have experienced several tornadoes this spring.
Source: AP
