Severe storms hit the southern US on Thursday while the area was still recovering from earlier bad weather. The storms caused tornadoes, killed three people, and seriously hurt a boy who was playing in a flooded street and got swept into a storm drain.
A big storm came to Atlanta at the end of the morning traffic. There were delays at busy airports in Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina. The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center said that there is a higher chance of dangerous weather from Texas to South Carolina. A person in charge of emergencies said there was a lot of damage from strong winds that might have been from a tornado on Thursday afternoon in Vidalia, Georgia. Vidalia is an area where a lot of onions are grown.
The storms bring heavy rain and tornadoes to the Plains, Midwest, and Southeast this week. For the past few days, severe weather has put 39 states in danger, and at least four people have died. On Wednesday and Thursday, around 220 million people were at risk of severe weather. Matthew Elliott, who forecasts for the Storm Prediction Center, said that some people were in danger for more than one day.
The weather comes after a very stormy April in the US. There were 300 confirmed tornadoes in April, which is the second-highest number ever for that month and the most since 2011.
More than 100,000 homes and businesses in the South still don’t have electricity because of storms last night.
Severe weather in Tennessee caused a lot of damage to homes, hurt people, knocked over power lines and trees, and led to the death of a 22-year-old man in a car in Claiborne County, which is north of Knoxville, according to officials. Another person died in Columbia, south of Nashville, in Maury County. A tornado with winds of 140 mph (225 km/h) damaged or destroyed over 100 homes, according to officials.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee said that a woman died in Maury County when her mobile home was thrown into a forest. Lee went to see people who work in emergencies and people who work for the Tennessee Department of Transportation in the area that was hit by the storm on Thursday. He said thank you to the workers who worked all night to remove trees and garbage from the roads.
Later, Lee told the news people that it’s really sad to see families who have been hurt by the tornado.
Lee said it is tough to see another family going through a tough time, but it is good to see them talking to their neighbors and saying they will be okay.
Bob Booth had just come back to his house in Columbia from Georgia. He was about to watch TV when he heard a loud noise.
Booth said, “I woke up and saw a lot of chaos outside. ” “Then the upper part of one of my trees falls on the road. ”
Former pastor Walter Shell said he and his wife took their two dogs and went to the basement when his phone told him about a tornado.
“It just missed us by about 4 inches. ” “It went in circles,” he said. “Praying is worth it, I can tell you. ”
Heavy rain caused a sudden flood and people had to be rescued from the water northeast of Nashville. The weather service also issued a tornado warning for nearby areas.
A 10-year-old boy was hurt badly in Christiana, near Nashville. He got stuck in a drainage pipe and was carried away by the water while playing with other kids. Adults were cleaning up debris at the time. His dad, who is the superintendent of Rutherford County Schools, shared the news on social media.
The boy, Asher, came out of a drainage ditch and stayed alive after getting CPR. “But he is really hurt,” Sullivan wrote on Facebook, and asked for people to pray for him.
“Asher really needs something amazing to happen,” Sullivan wrote.
Many people came to the school district’s offices for a prayer event on Thursday. They bent down and shut their eyes to pray, and they sang “Amazing Grace” at the same time.
Schools in Rutherford and Maury were closed on Thursday and Friday. Some areas north of Atlanta in Georgia had to cancel in-person classes or start later because of storm damage. Fallen trees damaged houses and cars in Clarkesjsonville. Nobody got hurt there.
“We are currently cleaning up and waiting for the next round,” said Lynn Smith, who is in charge of the Habersham County Emergency Management Agency.
A big tornado wrecked at least 20 homes in northern Alabama’s DeKalb County and hurt some people but didn’t kill anyone, officials said.
A big storm hit Gaston County in North Carolina. It caused a lot of damage and knocked down power lines and trees. A car also got hit by a falling tree. The state declared a state of emergency in response to the storm. One person died in the car and another person went to the hospital, according to officials.
Severe weather hit parts of the central US on Monday, with storms bringing heavy rain, strong winds, hail, and tornadoes. One person died when a tornado tore through a town in Oklahoma. Tuesday, the Midwest got hit the hardest by the bad weather. Tornadoes hit Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, said the weather service.
The Kalamazoo area in Michigan was hit hard when a FedEx building was destroyed, and about 50 people were trapped by fallen power lines.
Tornadoes were seen near Pittsburgh, in central Arkansas, and in northern West Virginia. The West Virginia tornado was the 11th tornado in the state this year. Usually, West Virginia has about two tornadoes in a year.
Tornadoes have hit the Plains and Midwest a lot this spring.