Tornadoes tear through southeastern US as storms leave 3 dead
COLUMBIA, Tenn. — Forecasters warned that a wave of dangerous storms in the US could move through parts of the South early Thursday, after storms a day earlier spawned damaging tornadoes and huge hail, killing two in Tennessee and one in North Carolina.
The storms continue an outbreak of downpours and tornadoes that have swept across the country this week, from the Plains to the Midwest and now the Southeastern US. At least four people have been killed in storms since Monday.
Amid Wednesday’s storms, the National Weather Service continued to issue tornado warnings extending past midnight in North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Missouri and Kentucky. Parts of Arkansas and Mississippi were also under a tornado watch into the early morning hours.
A storm that swept through northeastern Tennessee on Wednesday brought high winds that downed power lines and trees. Bob Brooks, the sheriff in Claiborne County, about an hour north of Knoxville, said a 22-year-old man was sitting in a car when he was fatally struck by one of the trees.
A second person was killed in the city of Columbia in Maury County, where a tornado touched down, according to the National Weather Service. Columbia is located just south of Nashville.
Homes were damaged and people were injured, said Lynn Thompson, deputy director of Maury County 911. Thompson told The Associated Press he could not provide further details: “We are getting overwhelmed right now.”
Rita Thompson, spokesperson for Maury Regional Health, said the hospital had received five patients, including the deceased. Another was in serious condition and three had injuries that were not life-threatening, she said.
The storms also prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to issue a temporary ground freeze at Nashville International Airport and the National Weather Service to issue a tornado emergency — the highest alert level — for other nearby areas south of the state capital, including Chapel Hill and Eagleville.
Meanwhile, heavy rain and thunderstorms led to water rescues northeast of Nashville.
“Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order,” the National Weather Service warned as it issued a flash flood emergency.
In North Carolina, a state of emergency was declared Wednesday evening for Gaston County, west of Charlotte, after a major storm downed power lines and toppled trees, including one that landed on a car. One person in the car was killed and another was taken to a hospital, officials said.
The storms rolled into the region on Wednesday after parts of the central United States were pummeled by heavy rain, high winds, hail and tornadoes on Monday, including a deadly tornado that ripped through an Oklahoma city and killed one person. Then the Midwest took the brunt of the bad weather on Tuesday.
The National Weather Service said tornadoes touched down in parts of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana on Tuesday.
In Michigan, tornadoes swirled through the southwestern part of the state, in and around Kalamazoo County, according to the National Weather Service. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency for four counties.
The Portage area of Kalamazoo County was hit hard when a FedEx facility was torn apart, temporarily trapping about 50 people due to downed power lines.
Travis Wycoff ventured out Tuesday night after seeing on radar that a tornado had touched down in the Portage area, and he said he helped an elderly couple from their partially collapsed home and freed a service dog from another home.
“There were a lot of people running through the streets looking for people and their pets,” Wycoff said. “It was just complete chaos.”
In neighboring Pavilion Township, more than a dozen homes were destroyed in a mobile home park and 16 people were injured, Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller said.
Samantha Smith held a box outside her mother’s partially destroyed home in Pavilion Township Wednesday afternoon. The box contained her grandmother’s ashes. The opportunity to recover his most cherished items provided Smith with a rare moment of relief amid the storm’s devastation. She said her parents and brother were injured in the storm but survived.
“I’ve probably thanked God a billion times since this happened yesterday,” she said. “My children are healthy and well. We just have to make up for what we lost.”
Tornadoes were also confirmed in Pennsylvania, just outside Pittsburgh, central Arkansas and northern West Virginia. The West Virginia twister was at least the 11th tornado this year in the state, which sees two tornadoes in an average year.
Both the Plains and the Midwest have been ravaged by tornadoes this spring.
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Cappelletti and White reported from Detroit. Associated Press journalists from around the country contributed to this report, including Rio Yamat, Heather Hollingsworth, Colleen Slevin, Jim Salter, Kathy McCormack, Sarah Brumfield, Beatrice Dupuy, Alexa St. John, Adrian Sainz, John Raby and Lisa Baumann.
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