(Atlanta) Powerful storms with high, damaging winds threatened several southeastern U.S. states Friday, while residents in other areas cleaned up debris from deadly weather that sparked tornadoes in Michigan, Tennessee and other states.
The storms hit Tallahassee, Florida, where many trees were toppled around the state capital, authorities said Friday. Gusts of 70 mph were recorded by a weather station near the state Capitol complex, the National Weather Service said.
Images posted on social media show metal debris and other debris from damaged buildings littering parts of Florida’s capital. The Florida State University baseball stadium, where classes were canceled Friday, was notably damaged by twisted and bent fences.
Non-essential university personnel, students and visitors should avoid Tallahassee campuses until further notice, the university said in a social media post.
The city of Tallahassee indicated on the social media platform The city said more than 66,000 customers are without power and 11 substations were damaged by the storm.
PHOTO PHIL SEARS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
A tree blocked a road in Tallahassee, Florida on Friday.
“It is possible that the restoration will take the entire weekend,” warns the press release.
Severe thunderstorms are also expected in Alabama, near Florida, where gusts could bring down tree branches, the weather service said.
In Mississippi’s capital, Jackson, authorities on Friday asked residents to conserve and boil water as a precaution after a power outage at one of the main water treatment plants. JXN Water, the local water company, said customers can expect reduced water pressure while workers assess damage from overnight storms.
“It will take many hours for the system to recover, and in some locations it may take longer,” Ted Henifin, water system manager, warned in a statement.
The weather service warned that Hickory Hills and surrounding areas near the coast were likely to experience severe weather Friday and to expect hailstones that could damage vehicles.
PHOTO GEORGE WALKER IV, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Police officers were observing a completely destroyed home in Columbia, Tennessee, on Thursday.
More than 280,000 homes and businesses across the South, from Mississippi to North Carolina, were without power as of midday Friday, according to the tracking website poweroutage.us. More than half of them were in Florida, where more than 165,000 customers were without light and air conditioning.
Several tornado warnings and watches were issued by the National Weather Service Friday morning, but they were lifted by midday.
The weather service reported a hurricane-force gust of 75 miles per hour in Autauga County, Alabama, on Thursday. Metal roofs were ripped off buildings and trees fell on homes in Vidalia, Georgia. One person was injured in Rankin County, Mississippi, after a tree crashed into a home, according to weather service reports.
As of Monday, 39 states are under threat of severe weather and at least four people have died. As of Wednesday and Thursday, about 220 million people were at risk of severe weather, according to Matthew Elliott, a forecaster at the Storm Prediction Center.
The weather follows a stormy April in which the United States experienced 300 confirmed tornadoes, the second highest number ever recorded for that month and the most since 2011.
A storm was blamed for the death of a 22-year-old man who was riding in a car in Claiborne County, north of Knoxville, authorities said. A second person was killed south of Nashville, in Columbia, the seat of Maury County, where a tornado with winds of 225 kilometers per hour 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. Mr. Lee visited emergency and Tennessee Department of Transportation officials in the storm-affected region Thursday.
Torrential rain led to flash flooding and water rescues northeast of Nashville, and the weather service issued a tornado warning, its highest alert level, for surrounding areas.
A 10-year-old boy was seriously injured in Christiana, southeast of Nashville, when he got caught in a storm drain and was swept beneath the streets while playing with others children while adults cleared the debris, her father, Rutherford County Schools Superintendent Jimmy Sullivan, said on social media.
The boy, Asher, emerged in a drainage ditch and survived after receiving CPR, “but the damage is extensive,” Mr. Sullivan posted on Facebook, asking for prayers.
“Asher needs a miracle,” Mr. Sullivan wrote.
Dozens of people gathered at school district offices for a prayer vigil 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 class start times due to overnight storm damage, including trees falling on homes and vehicles in the area of Clarkesville. No injuries were reported.
The Plains and Midwest have been hit by tornadoes this spring.