Severe Storms Wreak Havoc in Central and Southeast U.S.
Devastating storms ripped through the central and southeast regions of the United States during the late hours of Tuesday and Wednesday, unleashing destructive tornadoes, unleashing massive hail, and claiming the lives of two individuals in Tennessee and another in North Carolina.
The tempest that swept through northeastern Tennessee brought fierce winds that toppled powerlines and trees. Claiborne County Sheriff Bob Brooks reported a tragic incident where a 22-year-old man lost his life when a tree fell on the car he was in. Claiborne County Mayor Joe Brooks also verified this fatality in a social media post.
By Wednesday afternoon, a tornado emergency — the most severe alert level issued by the National Weather Service — was declared for an area located to the south of Nashville, encompassing the towns of Spring Hill, Chapel Hill, and Eagleville.
Prior to this, a tornado warning had been issued for Columbia, situated approximately 45 miles south of Nashville.
Columbia Mayor Chaz Molder conveyed in a statement that at least one individual had lost their life due to the storm, although specific details regarding the cause of death were not immediately disclosed.
Molder further mentioned that there were multiple confirmed tornado touchdowns in the vicinity, leading to injuries and substantial property damage.
The Maury County Office of Emergency Management in a statement urged "everyone to stay out of the areas hit" by the storm, adding that all schools in the county would be closed Thursday.
In North Carolina, a state of emergency was declared for Gaston County Wednesday evening following a large storm. First responders were working to clear roads of downed power lines and broken trees and were helping residents, officials said. The New Hope Fire Department responded to a tree down on a car. One person in the car was killed and another was taken to a hospital, officials said.
More than 152,000 customers were without power in North Carolina and Tennessee Wednesday night, according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us.
Tornadoes Tuesday in parts of Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, according to the National Weather Service. The storms came a day after a deadly twister ripped through an Oklahoma town.
The National Weather Service confirmed tornadoes touched down Tuesday in western Ohio: five in Warren County and one each in Darke, Mercer and Auglaize counties. The weather service said crews are still surveying areas of Franklin and Butler counties to determine if tornadoes struck there, as well. Radar indicated a tornado struck Jefferson County, but teams will have to evaluate the damage to determine its rating, said Jeff Craven, a weather service meteorologist in Pittsburgh.
Crews on Wednesday were able to survey the damage caused by the strong storms that contained hail and heavy rains and knocked out power to thousands of utility customers.
In Michigan, weather service meteorologist Nathan Jeruzal said the tornadoes there touched down one each in Kalamazoo, Cass and Branch counties — all in the southwestern part of the state. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency for four counties.
Kalamazoo County's Portage area was hard hit as a FedEx facility was ripped apart and more than a dozen mobile homes were destroyed. About 50 people temporarily were trapped inside the damaged facility because of downed power lines.
More than a dozen homes were destroyed in a mobile home park in adjacent Pavilion Township and 16 people were injured, said Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller.
Samantha Smith clutched a box Wednesday afternoon as she stepped from her mother's partially wrecked home in Pavilion Township, about 137 miles west of Detroit. Inside the box were her grandmother's ashes. Being able to recover the most cherished of items offered Smith a rare moment of relief amid the storm's devastation.
Her parents and brother were injured during the storm but survived.
"I have thanked God probably a billion times since this happened yesterday," she said. "My kids are healthy and good. We just gotta make back up what we lost."
Acts of Heroism and Devastation Amidst Tornado Outbreak
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 freed a service dog from a home.
"There were a lot of people running through the streets trying to find people and their pets," Wycoff said. "It was just a lot of chaos."
In southern Indiana, the National Weather Service confirmed a tornado touched down early Wednesday, damaging homes in a subdivision north of the city of Sellersburg, located about 12 miles north of Louisville, Kentucky.
The Clark County Emergency Management Agency said the storm damaged 24 structures.
Candice Holmes, a resident of the Lewis & Clark subdivision north of Sellersburg, said she, her husband and son sought shelter in their bathroom when they heard the approaching storm and "the wind just picked up all at once."
"It was definitely a scary moment. ... And I'm glad we're alive," Holmes told WDRB-TV.
Tornadoes were also confirmed in Pennsylvania just outside Pittsburgh, in central Arkansas and in northern West Virginia. The West Virginia twister, which started early Wednesday in far eastern Ohio, was at least the 11th tornado this year in the state that sees two tornadoes in an average year.
Following a day of heavy rain, strong winds, hail, and tornadoes in parts of the central U.S., Tuesday's storms added to the ongoing weather chaos. The Plains and Midwest regions have been particularly hard hit by tornadoes this spring.
Looking ahead, the entire week is forecasted to be stormy across the United States. The Midwest and the South, including cities like Indianapolis, Memphis, Nashville, St. Louis, and Cincinnati – home to over 21 million people – are expected to bear the brunt of the bad weather. However, the skies are anticipated to clear up over the weekend.
