BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (AP) – Storms that left shattered houses and broken trees in Alabama and Mississippi moved east on Thursday, forcing a TV news out of their studio for a few minutes, but largely sparing the states of Atlantic Coast of any significant damage.
There were scary moments. In High Point, North Carolina, WGHP-TV meteorologist Van Denton ordered everyone to leave t during the 5 pm broadcast and in a makeup room for a few minutes after a storm with a tornado alert passed right over the station.
“I never heard the roof shake like that. We never had to leave the studio during a broadcast, ”said anchor Neill McNeill, who has been at the station for 37 years.
But no serious injuries or injuries were reported immediately in North Carolina due to storms near High Point and Charlotte, which had tornado warnings.
In southwest Alabama, at least two people were injured on Wednesday when a tornado destroyed a home. Pieces of houses and twisted metal placed between broken trees in the worst-hit areas, but no one died and the region seemed to escape the type of horrible toll that many feared after the sinister predictions of monstrous tornadoes and massive hail.
“Overall, we have a lot to be thankful for, as it could have been much worse,” Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said in a statement.
Meteorologists issued a series of tornado warnings Thursday morning around the region where Alabama, Georgia and Florida intersect, but there were no immediate reports of major damage.
Meteorologists fear that the storms will intensify as they move to South Carolina and North Carolina on Thursday afternoon, but most have stayed below severe limits.
In South Carolina, the severe climate threat prompted the president of the state Senate to warn senators to stay home on Thursday, while urging the team to work remotely for their safety. House Speaker Jay Lucas kept his promise the day before to meet in less than an hour on Thursday so that members could weather the storms at home.
The forecast caused several state school systems to cancel face-to-face classes on Thursday and make students and teachers meet online.
The Atlanta metropolitan area has been hit by heavy rains, with intense rays and strong gusts of up to 80 km / h. 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.
On Wednesday, possible tornadoes in Alabama knocked down trees, knocked out power lines and damaged homes. Some of the worst problems occurred in rural Clarke County, where officials said two people were injured when a house was destroyed and several others were damaged.
Between Montgomery and Birmingham, in Chilton County, a storm destroyed at least three houses and the roofs were torn from houses in Moundville, south of Tuscaloosa. “There are a lot of trees felled. I think it must be a tornado; got out of here very fast, ”said Michael Brown, whose family owns Moundville Ace Hardware and Building.
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 at one point, from Texas to Alabama, which was in a state of emergency, and southern communities used social media to share the location of tornado shelters.
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Associated Press writers Tom Foreman Jr. in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.