COLUMBIA, Tenn. (AP) — Dangerous storms raged across parts of the South on Thursday, at the same time as the region recovered from earlier severe weather that spawned tornadoes, killing not less than three people and seriously injuring a boy who was swept right into a drain while playing in a flooded street.
Toward the top of the morning rush hour, a line of severe storms hit Atlanta. Busy hub airports in Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina, reported delays. The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center called an “increased risk” for severe weather from Texas to South Carolina. An emergency manager reported “significant wind damage” Thursday afternoon from a possible tornado within the Vidalia, Georgia, area, a region known for onion farming.
The storms proceed a series of torrential rains and tornadoes this week from the Plains to the Midwest and now the Southeast. As of Monday, 39 states have been threatened by severe weather and not less than 4 people have died. About 220 million people faced some form of severe weather threat on Wednesday and Thursday, some for several days, said Matthew Elliott, a meteorologist with the Storm Prediction Center.
The weather follows a stormy April that saw 300 confirmed tornadoes within the U.S., the second most on record this month and probably the most since 2011.
As of Thursday afternoon, greater than 100,000 homes and businesses were still missing in several Southern states following storms the night before, based on PowerOutage.us.
One in Tennessee damaged homes, injured people, toppled power lines and trees and killed a 22-year-old man in a automobile in Claiborne County, north of Knoxville, officials said. A second person was killed south of Nashville in Columbia, the Maury County seat, where officials said a tornado with winds of 140 mph (225 km/h) damaged or destroyed greater than 100 homes.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said the lady who died in Maury County was in a mobile home that was thrown several feet right into a wooded area. Lee visited emergency managers and Tennessee Department of Transportation officials within the storm-hit area on Thursday. He thanked employees who spent the night clearing trees and debris from the streets.
Lee later told reporters that it was “heartbreaking” to see families whose lives were affected by the tornado.
“Watching another family in crisis is hard to watch, but it's hopeful to go and see them interact with their neighbors and say they're going to get through it,” Lee said.
Bob Booth had just returned to Columbia from Georgia and was watching television when he heard a “crazy noise.”
“I stand up and look outside and all hell is breaking loose outside,” Booth said. “Then the top half of one of my trees falls across the street.”
Retired pastor Walter Shell said he and his wife grabbed their two dogs and went to the basement when his phone warned him of a tornado.
“It missed the spot where me and my wife were standing by about 10cm. Word got out,” he said. “It’s worth praying, I can tell you that.”
Heavy rains led to a flash flood emergency and water rescues northeast of Nashville, and the weather service declared a tornado emergency, the very best alert level, for surrounding areas.
A ten-year-old boy was seriously injured in Christiana, southeast of Nashville, when he fell right into a storm drain and was swept under the road while fidgeting with other children while adults cleaned up debris, like his father, the Rutherford County school superintendent , Jimmy Sullivan, posted on social media.
The boy, Asher, emerged from a drainage ditch and survived after cardiopulmonary resuscitation, “but the damage is significant,” Sullivan posted on Facebook, asking for prayers.
“Asher needs a miracle,” Sullivan wrote.
Dozens of individuals gathered for a prayer vigil at the college district's offices Thursday. They bowed their heads, closed their eyes in prayer and sang “Amazing Grace” together.
Schools were closed Thursday and Friday in Rutherford and Maury. In Georgia, some districts north of Atlanta have canceled in-person classes or pushed back start times resulting from overnight storm damage, including downed trees on homes and vehicles around Clarkesville. No injuries were reported there.
“We’re just trying to clean up and wait for the next round,” said Lynn Smith, director of the Habersham County Emergency Management Agency.
A powerful tornado damaged not less than 20 homes in northern Alabama's DeKalb County, causing injuries but no deaths, officials said.
The storms followed heavy rains, strong winds, hail and tornadoes across parts of the central U.S. on Monday, including a tornado that ripped through an Oklahoma town, killing one person. On Tuesday, the Midwest was hit hardest by the bad weather. According to the weather service, tornadoes touched down in parts of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.
The Kalamazoo area of Michigan was hit hard when a FedEx facility was torn apart, leaving about 50 people trapped by downed power lines.
Tornadoes were also confirmed near Pittsburgh, central Arkansas and northern West Virginia. The West Virginia twister was not less than the eleventh tornado this 12 months within the state, which sees two tornadoes in a median 12 months.
Both the Plains and the Midwest were hit by tornadoes this spring.
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