Severe weather poised to slam the Southeast again after earlier storms killed at least 2
(CNN)The Southeast is again seeing severe weather Wednesday, including heavy rain and tornadoes — even as the South copes with the aftermath of storms that left at least two dead and swaths of home and tree damage earlier this week.
Two tornadoes were observed around Valdosta, Georgia, on Wednesday evening.
A tornado watch is in effect until 11 p.m. ET Wednesday for portions of eastern and southeastern Georgia and western South Carolina, including the cities of Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina; and Savannah, Georgia.
As well as tornadoes, hail up to 2 inches and wind gusts up to 70 mph are also possible, according to the Storm Prediction Center.
A flood watch also is in effect for parts of Georgia until Thursday morning, because heavy rain could flood already-high rivers and creeks and lead to flash flooding, the National Weather Service said. About 2 million people may be affected.
2 killed Tuesday as storms ripped the South
The severe weather comes after parts of the South dealt with a series of storms that killed at least two people.
Dozens of tornado reports were made Monday and Tuesday from Texas into the Southeast, including at least 38 Tuesday in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, according to the weather service.
Suspected and confirmed twisters, as well as strong winds, downed trees and power lines across portions of these areas, as well as damaging homes and businesses across several states.
A man in East Texas was killed early Tuesday when a tree fell on an RV in the community of Whitehouse, the Smith County emergency management coordinator said.
Another person died in Bryan County, Georgia, as severe weather swept through the area, local officials said. The county, which is near Savannah, declared a state of emergency due to the impacts of a tornado, officials said.
Tornado debris trapped several people in their homes in Bryan County, emergency officials said.
Mary Edwards was driving on Interstate 16 in Georgia not far from Savannah when she saw a tornado ahead.
The twister appeared just minutes after Edwards received an alert on her phone for a tornado warning.
“To see it right before you, it’s humbling. It’s exciting, it’s majestic, and you really get that sense of mortality. You surrender,” she said.
An EF-2 tornado with estimated maximum winds of 130 mph was confirmed by the National Weather Service to have hit Monetta in Aiken County, South Carolina, on Tuesday evening.
Suspected tornadoes were reported in South Carolina’s Allendale County, where four homes were destroyed, five others sustained major damage and at least three people suffered non-life-threatening injuries, the state emergency management division said.
In middle Georgia’s Houston County, Randell Petrie, his wife and dog hid in their home for about two minutes as a severe storm hit his neighborhood: “I hear the sound of a train and told my wife to get in the closet,” he said.
When the rain let up about 30 minutes later, he went outside and saw homes damaged from fallen trees, including at least one tree that crushed a roof and came to rest inside the building, he said. Some trees were uprooted; others were snapped, pictures from Petrie showed.
Correction: An earlier version of this story overstated the number of people under the day’s most severe weather threat level.
CNN’s Aya Elamroussi, Sharif Paget, Sara Smart, Dave Alsup and Rebekah Riess contributed to this report.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/06/weather/severe-weather-south-wednesday/index.html
