Tornadoes sweep through the southeastern United States, storms claim three lives

COLUMBIA, Tenn. (AP) — Meteorologists have warned that a wave of dangerous U.S. storms could move across parts of the South early Thursday, after storms a day earlier produced devastating tornadoes and massive hail, leaving two dead in Tennessee and one dead in North Carolina .

The storms continue an outbreak of torrential rain and tornadoes that has swept across the country this week, from the Plains to the Midwest to the southeastern United States. At least four people have died in storms since Monday.

Amid Wednesday’s storms, the National Weather Service continued to issue tornado warnings in North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Missouri and Kentucky that lasted past midnight. Parts of Arkansas and Mississippi were also under a tornado watch in the early morning hours.

A storm that raged across Northeast Tennessee on Wednesday brought strong 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 in a car when he was fatally struck by one of the trees.

A second person was killed in the Maury County town of Columbia, where a tornado likely touched down, according to the National Weather Service. Columbia is south of Nashville.

Homes were damaged and people were injured, according to Maury County 911 Deputy Director Lynn Thompson. Thompson told The Associated Press that he couldn’t provide further details: “We’re overwhelmed right now.”

Rita Thompson, a spokeswoman for Maury Regional Health, said the hospital admitted five patients, including the person who died. 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 impose a temporary ground stop at Nashville International Airport and the National Weather Service to declare a tornado emergency – the highest alert level – for other nearby areas south of the state capital, including Chapel Hill and Eagleville .

Meanwhile, torrential rain and thunderstorms led to water rescues northeast of Nashville.

“Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing a flood zone or have an evacuation order,” the National Weather Service warned in declaring 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 severed 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 across the region on Wednesday after parts of the central United States were hit by heavy rains, strong winds, hail and tornadoes on Monday, including a deadly tornado that ripped through an Oklahoma town, killing one person. Then on Tuesday, the Midwest suffered the brunt of the bad weather.

Tornadoes struck parts of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.

In Michigan, tornadoes ripped through the southwestern part of the state, in and around Kalamazoo County, according to the National Weather Service. Governor 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, leaving about 50 people temporarily trapped inside 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 out of their partially collapsed home and a service dog out of another House freed.

“A lot of people were running through the streets trying to find people and their pets,” Wycoff said. “It was just a lot of chaos.”

In neighboring Pavilion Township, more than a dozen homes in a mobile home park were destroyed and 16 people were injured, Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller said.

Samantha Smith clutched a box outside her mother’s partially destroyed home in Pavilion Township on Wednesday afternoon. Her grandmother’s ashes were in the box. The opportunity to recover the most valuable items gave Smith a rare moment of relief amid the storm’s devastation. She said her parents and brother were injured during the storm but survived.

“I’ve probably thanked God a billion times since this happened yesterday,” she said. “My children are healthy and happy. 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 were hit by tornadoes this spring.

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Cappelletti and White reported from Detroit. Associated Press journalists across 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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