Catherine Rusoff
Powerful storms with damaging strong winds threatened several Southeast states Friday morning, as residents elsewhere in the U.S. cleaned up debris from the severe and deadly weather that produced twisters in Michigan, Tennessee and other states.
Storms hit Tallahassee, Florida, where numerous trees were downed around the state capital, officials said Friday. Wind gusts of 71 mph were recorded by a weather station near the State Capitol Complex, the National Weather Service reported. Florida State University announced its Tallahassee campuses were closed Friday due to severe weather. Non-essential personnel, students and visitors should avoid Tallahassee campuses until further notice, the school said in a social media post.
The city of Tallahassee said on social media platform this “possible tornado activity” caused widespread damage in Florida’s capital, especially to power lines and numerous downed trees. The city said more than 66,000 customers were without electrical service and 11 substations were damaged by the storm.
“Restoration will possibly last through the weekend,” the announcement said.
Phil Sears/AP
Severe storms were also expected in Alabama, near the Florida panhandle, where gusts of wind could knock down tree limbs, the weather service said.
In Mississippi’s capital, Jackson, officials on Friday asked residents to conserve water after a power outage at one of its main water treatment plants. JXN Water, the local water utility, said in a statement that customers can expect a reduction in water pressure as workers assess damage from storms that hit the region overnight. The weather service said Hickory Hills and surrounding areas near the coast were likely to see severe weather Friday morning, and that hail with the potential to damage vehicles was expected.
More than 320,000 homes and businesses across the South, from Mississippi to North Carolina, were without power Friday morning, according to the website poweroutage.us. Most of these outages occurred in Florida, where lights and air conditioning were out for more than 180,000 customers.
Several tornado watches and watches were issued by the National Weather Service on Friday morning, but were lifted at noon as the threat changed to high, damaging winds. Since Monday, 39 states are under threat of severe weather and at least four people died. On Wednesday and Thursday, about 220 million people were under some type of severe weather risk, said Matthew Elliott, a meteorologist at the Storm Prediction Center.
Deaths and injuries after the destructive path of bad weather
A thunderstorm was blamed for the death of a 22-year-old man in a car in Claiborne County, north of Knoxville, authorities said. A second person died south of Nashville in Columbia, the seat of Maury County, where authorities said a tornado with 145 mph winds damaged or destroyed more than 100 homes.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said the woman who died in Maury County was in a mobile home that was thrown several feet into a wooded area. Lee visited emergency managers and Tennessee Department of Transportation officials in the storm-hit area on Thursday.
Torrential rains led to a flash flood emergency and water rescues northeast of Nashville, and the weather service issued a tornado emergency, its highest warning level, for nearby areas.
A 10-year-old boy was seriously injured in Christiana, southeast of Nashville, when he was caught in a storm drain and swept through the streets while playing with other children while adults cleaned up the debris, his father, the superintendent of Rutherford County schools, posted. Jimmy Sullivan. on the social networks.
George Walker IV/AP
The boy, Asher, emerged from a drainage ditch and survived after receiving CPR, “but the damage is substantial,” Sullivan posted on Facebook, asking for prayers.
“Asher needs a miracle,” Sullivan wrote.
Dozens of people gathered at the school district offices for a prayer vigil on Thursday. They bowed their heads and 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 canceled in-person classes or delayed start times due to damage from overnight storms, which included fallen trees on homes and vehicles around Clarkesville. No injuries were reported there.
Both the Plains and the Midwest have been hit by tornadoes this spring.
