BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (AP) – The prospect of more tornadoes overnight and until Thursday in Deep South had meteorologists advising residents to take extra precautions after a storm surge hit the region throughout Wednesday, leaving a trail of shattered trees and damaged buildings.
Severe scattered storms are expected Thursday to parts of eastern Georgia, through the Carolinas to the southeast tip of Virginia, according to the National Weather Service’s Storm Forecast Center. All serious dangers are possible. Other isolated severe storms are possible from southern Ohio to the central Appalachians.
The biggest overnight tornado threat remained over Alabama, according to the weather service, but heavy storms and tornadoes were possible from central eastern Georgia and the northeast through South and North Carolina late on Thursday. -market.
“Significant tornadoes, wind damage and heavy hail will be possible from morning to afternoon,” the center said Wednesday night. “Severe storms will also be possible from parts of the eastern Gulf coast to the south and the center of the Appalachians.”
The weather service instructed residents across the region to keep the cell phone volume high to hear emergency alerts during the night.
Early Thursday, there were no storm warnings in the entire metropolitan area of Atlanta, but intense lightning, heavy rain and strong gusts of up to 40-50 mph were moving through the area.
Morehouse College tweeted that it was delaying the opening of its campus to 11 am and that faculty and staff should not be arriving before that time. All classes before that should be taught virtually, he said.
While nearly 16 million people in the southeast could see powerful storms, said the forecasting center, a region of about 3 million that stretches from southeastern Arkansas and northeast Louisiana through Mississippi to Alabama was at high risk for big twisters that remain on the ground for kilometers, straight winds of up to 129 km / h and destructive hail.
In South Carolina, the severe climate threat prompted the president of the state Senate to warn senators to do state residency on Thursday, while urging the team to work remotely for their safety. House Speaker Jay Lucas said the chamber will meet in less than an hour on Thursday to address routine motions before a budget debate next week – and then postpone it.
“If you are in a situation where it is dangerous to come, I am asking you not to come,” said Lucas. “If you can come, give us a quorum and do those few things that we need to do, we will get out of here in a hurry.”
Almost all of South Carolina is at moderate risk of severe storms. The forecast caused several state school systems to cancel face-to-face classes on Thursday and make students and teachers meet online.
Possible tornadoes on Wednesday fell trees, cut power lines and damaged homes in rural Chilton County and in the communities of Burnsville and Moundville, Alabama, where power was cut and trees blocked a major highway.
WTVM-TV reports that Jimmy Baker, whose home was one of three destroyed in Chilton, watched as the storm headed for his home.
“So, about a minute before I got here, we jumped. . . in the hall closet, a small closet, ”said Baker. “And only we hear. You know, the sound of the house falling. We were saved. We thank the Lord for that, ”he said.
“Downtown Moundville got it. Some roofs and other things have been removed from the houses, ”said Michael Brown, whose family owns Moundville Ace Hardware and Building. “There are a lot of trees felled. I think it must be a tornado; got out of here very fast. “
Additional damage has been reported in Louisiana, Tennessee and Mississippi, where the video showed an apparent tornado in Brookhaven. Strong winds knocked down plaques and trees in northeastern Texas, and hailstones the size of baseballs have been reported near the Alabama-Mississippi line, the weather service said.
More than 70,000 homes and businesses were left without power from Texas to Alabama, and the radar showed other storms moving through the region when initial cleaning work began.
Storms were possible from northern Texas, in the west to northern Illinois, and in the far east to the Carolinas, meteorologists said, and the weather service issued more than 50 tornado warnings in Alabama, Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi and Oklahoma. Tornado watches included pieces from seven states.
Dozens of school systems in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi canceled classes, switched to online learning or dismissed students earlier, and Mississippi State University switched to virtual education due to the potential for danger on its Starkville and Meridian campuses.
Major vaccination clinics, where hundreds of people an hour can get vaccines without leaving their vehicles, have been canceled in Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee. In Mississippi’s capital, Jackson, civil servants have been told to head for the stairs if they hear the weather sirens. Near Birmingham, job organizers canceled an outdoor event at an Amazon facility where workers are voting for union representation.
At least two storm waves are likely, meteorologists said, and the worst may not come until a cold front passes through the night.
“The biggest question is how strong the severe storms are going to be and whether they will become thorny in the first place,” said Gary Goggins, an analyst in the Birmingham National Weather Service’s office, on Wednesday.
Governor Kay Ivey put Alabama in a state of emergency, and communities across the south used social media to share the location of tornado shelters. Dozens of people gathered in a gymnasium that opened as a shelter in Tuscaloosa, where more than 50 people died in a hurricane during a 10-year-old weather outbreak next month.
In Jackson, Tennessee, officials said a civic center and regional airport would be open to residents seeking shelter.
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