The Associated Press – People view a flooded street in Philadelphia, Thursday, Sept. 2, 2021 in the aftermath of downpours and high winds from the remnants of Hurricane Ida that hit the area. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

NEW YORK — A stunned U.S. East Coast faced a rising death toll, surging rivers and tornado damage Thursday after the remnants of Hurricane Ida walloped the region with record-breaking rain, drowning more than 40 people in their homes and cars.

In a region that had been warned about potentially deadly flash flooding but hadn’t braced for such a blow from the no-longer-hurricane, the storm killed at least 46 people from Maryland to Connecticut on Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

At least 23 people died in New Jersey, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said. At least 13 people were killed in New York City, police said, 11 of them in flooded basement apartments, which often serve as relatively affordable homes in one of the nation’s most expensive housing markets. Suburban Westchester County reported three deaths.

Officials said at least five people died in Pennsylvania, including one killed by a falling tree and another who drowned in his car after helping his wife to escape. A Connecticut state police sergeant, Brian Mohl, perished after his cruiser was swept away. Another death was reported in Maryland.

Sophy Liu said she tried using towels and garbage bags to stop the water coming into her first-floor New York City apartment, but the flood rose to her chest in just a half hour. She roused her son from bed, put him in a life jacket and inflatable swimming ring and tried to flee, but the door stuck. She called two friends who helped her jar it loose.

“I was obviously scared, but I had to be strong for my son. I had to calm him down,” she recalled Thursday as medical examiners removed three bodies from a home down her Queens street.

In another part of Queens, water rapidly filled Deborah Torres’ first-floor apartment to her knees as her landlord frantically urged her neighbors below — among them a toddler — to get out, she said. But the water rushed in so strongly that she surmised they weren’t able to open the door. The three residents died.

“I have no words,” she said. “How can something like this happen?”

Ida’s soggy remnants merged with a storm front and soaked the Interstate 95 corridor, meteorologists said. Similar weather has followed hurricanes before, but experts said it was slightly exacerbated by climate change — warmer air holds more rain — and urban settings, where expansive pavement prevents water from seeping into the ground.

The National Hurricane Center had warned since Tuesday of the potential for “significant and life-threatening flash flooding” and major river flooding in the mid-Atlantic region and New England.

Still, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the storm’s strength took them by surprise.

“We did not know that between 8:50 and 9:50 p.m. last night, that the heavens would literally open up and bring Niagara Falls level of water to the streets of New York,” said Hochul, a Democrat who became governor last week after former Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned.

De Blasio, also a Democrat, said he’d gotten a forecast Wednesday of 3 to 6 inches (7.5 to 15 cm) of rain for the day. The city’s Central Park ended up getting 3.15 inches in just one hour, surpassing the previous one-hour high of 1.94 inches (5 cm) during Tropical Storm Henri on Aug. 21.

Wednesday’s storm ultimately dumped over 9 inches (23 cm) of rain in parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and nearly as much on New York City’s Staten Island.

In Washington, President Joe Biden assured Northeast residents that federal first responders were on the ground to help clean up.

In New York, nearly 500 vehicles were abandoned on flooded highways, garbage bobbed in streaming streets and water cascaded into the city’s subway tunnels, trapping at least 17 trains and disrupting service all day. Videos online showed riders standing on seats in swamped cars. All were safely evacuated, with police aiding 835 riders and scores of people elsewhere, including a 94-year-old man on a highway, Chief of Department Rodney Harrison said.

At one Queens development, neighbors unsuccessfully tried for an hour to save a 48-year-old woman after water broke through the glass patio door of her basement apartment, trapping her in 6 feet (2 meters) of water.

“She was screaming, ‘Help me, help me, help me!’ We all came to her aid, trying to get her out,” said the building’s assistant superintendent, Jayson Jordan, but “the thrust of the water was so strong.”

Residents said they have complained for years about flooding on another Queens street, where a woman and her 22-year-old son died in a basement apartment. Her husband and the couple’s other son were spared only because they stepped out to move a car, next-door neighbor Lisa Singh said.

“No one should have to go this way. I feel like this was 100% avoidable,” she said.

Police were still going door-to-door in flooded areas Thursday evening and didn’t have a firm number of unaccounted-for people, Harrison said.

In Elizabeth, New Jersey, rain and river flooding in an apartment complex killed four people and forced 600 from their homes, Mayor J. Christian Bollwage said.

Greg Turner, who lives elsewhere in the northern New Jersey city, said his 87-year-old mother started calling 911 when water began rising in her apartment at 8 p.m. He and his brother couldn’t get there because of the deluge.

As midnight approached, the water reached her neck, he said. Rescuers finally cut through the floor of the apartment above and pulled her to safety.

“She lost everything,” Turner said as he headed to a bank for money to buy his mother clothes and shoes.

In New Jersey’s Milford Borough, authorities said they found a man’s body in a car buried up to its hood in dirt and rocks.

The National Weather Service said the ferocious storm also spawned at least 10 tornadoes from Maryland to Massachusetts, including a 150-mph (241 kph) twister that splintered homes and toppled silos in Mullica Hill, New Jersey, south of Philadelphia.

“It just came through and ripped,” said resident Jeanine Zubrzycki, 33, who hid in her basement with her three children as their house shook and lights flickered.

“And then you could just hear people crying,” said Zubrzycki, 33, whose home was damaged but livable.

Record flooding along the Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania inundated homes, highways and commercial buildings, even as meteorologists warned that rivers likely won’t crest for a few more days. The riverside community of Manayunk remained largely under water.

The Schuyilkill reached levels not seen in over 100 years in Philadelphia, where firefighters were still getting calls about minor building collapses and people stuck in flooded cars Thursday morning. The managers of a 941-unit apartment complex near the river ordered residents to evacuate, citing “deteriorating” conditions after water rushed into the parking garage and pool areas.

In suburban Bucks County, several firefighters had to be rescued after floodwaters pinned a rescue boat against a bridge pier, state emergency management director Randy Padfield said.

Others were unable to escape the floods, including Donald Bauer, who was driving home to Perkiomenville with his wife after attending their daughter’s volleyball game at DeSales University, near Allentown.

Their SUV stalled in the water and floated into a house, breaking the back window, said Darby Bauer, who was on the phone with his parents when the engine died. Donald Bauer helped his wife, Katherine, escape out the broken window and urged her to go, their son said.

She clung to a tree and watched the rising waters carry the SUV out of sight, he said. She was rescued about an hour later and hospitalized.

Donald Bauer, a 65-year-old retired school bus driver, “had one of the biggest hearts we knew,” his son said. “He was selfless down to his last act.”

Authorities used boats to rescue people in places from North Kingstown, Rhode Island, to Frederick County, Maryland, where 10 children and a driver were pulled from a school bus.

On Sunday, Ida struck Louisiana as the fifth-strongest storm to ever hit the U.S. mainland, leaving 1 million people without power, maybe for weeks.

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Porter reported from Elizabeth, New Jersey. Contributing were AP reporters Karen Matthews and Michael R. Sisak in New York; Seth Borenstein and Darlene Superville in Washington; Mark Pratt in Waltham, Massachusetts; in New Jersey, Maryclaire Dale in Mullica Hill, Michael Catalini and Shawn Marsh in Trenton, and Wayne Parry in Point Pleasant; in Connecticut, Dave Collins in Hartford and Pat Eaton-Robb in Columbia; and in Pennsylvania, Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia, Mark Scolforo in Harrisburg and Michael Rubinkam in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Source: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/ida-us-hurricanes-remnants-rip-northeast-79783025

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Sally made landfall near Gulf Shores around 4:45 a.m. CT with sustained winds of 105 mph — and it was barely weaker near the Alabama-Florida line two hours later.

With Sally’s slow pace — generally 3 mph — some areas already have collected more than 15 inches of rain and could receive up to 35 inches by storm’s end.

Pieces of hazardous debris “have become too numerous to list,” police in Pensacola, Florida, warned, urging drivers to stay off roads.

“Nothing is going to go away anytime soon,” National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham told CNN. “The winds, the torrential rainfall, the slow movement and the storm surge — this is a dangerous situation all around.”

People walk on flooded streets in search of their vehicle early Wednesday in Pensacola, Florida.

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On Florida’s Pensacola Beach, sounds of transformers exploding and metal scraping along the ground — debris from torn roofs — could be heard early Wednesday.

Power has been knocked out for more than 500,000 customers in Alabama and Florida alone, utility tracker PowerOutage.us reported.

The National Weather Service office in Mobile declared a flash flood emergency for “severe threat to human life & catastrophic damage from a flash flood.”

“This is a LIFE-THREATENING SITUATION. SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW!!” the NWS Mobile office tweeted.

Tracking Sally
See maps »

Rainfall totals of 10 to 35 inches are possible across parts of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, from Mobile Bay to Tallahassee, forecasters say.

Related article: 5 tropical cyclones are in the Atlantic at the same time for only the second time in history.

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The storm’s slow forward speed is expected to continue through Wednesday as it turns to the north and then northeast, taking with it strong winds and more flooding potential.

Central Alabama and central Georgia could eventually see 4 to 12 inches of rain, with significant flash flooding possible. Parts of the Carolinas could receive 4 to 9 inches of rain by later in the week.

Mandatory evacuations were ordered for much of the coast and low-lying areas from Mississippi to Florida, and shelters opened to accommodate evacuees.

Florida’s National Guard has activated 175 members to prepare for search-and-rescue operations, according to the Division of Emergency Management.

Damage in the Mobile area, hours before landfall

As wind and rain whipped before midnight, enormous trees already had been felled west of Mobile, Alabama.

Workers in raincoats endured Sally’s bands as they worked alongside a digger truck to move thick piles of branches at Campfire and Ponderosa drives, CNN affiliate WALA reported.

Similar scenes unfolded around the same time — still about six hours before Sally came ashore — in midtown Mobile and across Mobile Bay in Fairhope, Alabama.

Businesses close and military bases restrict access

Businesses shut down ahead of the storm, with Walmart announcing 54 closures due to Sally, company spokesman Scott Pope told CNN on Tuesday.

Shelves were emptied by people storm prepping ahead of Sally in Alabama.

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“We are tracking the storm in real time and have activated our Emergency Operations Center in order to support our associates in the impacted areas,” Pope said.

Across the Gulf Coast, three military installations announced that only mission-essential personnel should report to work Wednesday.

The installations are the Naval Air Station Pensacola and Eglin Air Force Base in Pensacola, along with Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, home to the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, often called the “Hurricane Hunters.”

Residents prepared for a serious storm

People began preparing for Sally over the weekend, filling sandbags, grabbing supplies and prepping their homes.

Shelters have been opened to house evacuees.

Merrill Warren of Summerdale, Alabama, which sits about 16 miles inland from the Gulf, told CNN he brought in furniture, purchased gas and other supplies, and got his generator ready for the storm.

On Tuesday night, he reported that heavy rains and winds of up to 39 mph had already hit inland. Warren was more concerned about the potential for increased rainfall and surges than anything else, he said.

“This isn’t the first Category 1 Hurricane that I have been through. I have been there through Hurricane Nate and Tropical Storm Gordon,” Warren said. “I’m more worried about the rain for this one … The rain and storms surge are definitely going to be the bigger issue with a storm moving at 2 mph.”

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CNN’s Gary Tuchman, Ed Lavandera, Devon Sayers, Joe Sutton, Sharif Paget, Micahel Guy, Dave Hennen, Rebekah Riess, Kay Jones and Amanda Jackson contributed to this report.

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Source:  https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/16/weather/hurricane-sally-wednesday/index.html

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A powerful Arctic cold front will bring the coldest temperatures of the season next week to most of the United States, breaking dozens of November records in the central, southern and eastern parts of the country.

A blast of cold air will arrive in the central and eastern U.S. early next week, according to the Weather Channel. The cold front will sweep through the Northern Plains and upper Midwest on Sunday, into the Southern Plains and Ohio Valley on Monday, and then through the East Coast and Deep South on Tuesday.

The National Weather Service is forecasting about 190 potential daily record cold high temperatures between Monday and Wednesday, according to the Weather Channel.

WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 15: Two young girls adjust each other’s winter wear in McPherson Square during the season’s first Arctic blast (Polar Vortex) on December 15, 2016 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Jonathan Erdman, a Weather Channel meteorologist, described the temperatures as “a little taste of January in November.”

Meteorologists said highs in the teens may be widespread in the Northern Plains by Monday, and temperatures may struggle to rise out of the 20s for highs as far south as the mid-Mississippi Valley and the Central Plains.

Monday’s high temperatures could be the coldest on record for Nov. 11 in dozens of cities in the Midwest and Plains, The Weather Channel said. It is expected to be the coldest Veterans Day on record for Chicago and Minneapolis, according to the outlet.

Tuesday’s highs could be the coldest on record for Nov. 12 over a widespread area, from the interior Northeast and Great Lakes into the Ohio Valley and lower Mississippi Valley. The highs could be below freezing as far south as Tennessee, and in the 40s as far south as the northern Gulf Coast, including Houston and New Orleans, the Weather Channel said.

The Florida Panhandle may see lows in the 30s on Wednesday and Thursday morning, according to the outlet.

National Weather Service@NWS

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(CNN)An intense and ferocious winter storm — a “bomb cyclone” — is expected to bring hurricane-force wind gusts, blizzard conditions and a flood threat across a swath of the US heartland Wednesday.

Blizzard and winter storm warnings are in effect for portions of Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska and South Dakota. Heavy snow is expected in portions of the Rockies and northern Plains, including Denver into Thursday.

Travel will be dangerous, if not impossible, at times, across the front range where the blizzard warning has been issued. Severe storms capable of producing damaging winds, hail, and tornadoes is forecast from the southern Plains and into the Mississippi River Valley. More than 45 people million are under a high wind threat; more than 10 million are under winter storm threats; and more than 15 million are under a flood threat.

The National Weather Service in Boulder, Colorado, issued a blunt message Tuesday: “Please cancel any travel plans Wednesday afternoon and evening especially east of I-25, and stay tuned for further updates!”

It warned of icy roads, whiteout conditions and strong winds.

“The heavy snow and visibility near zero will create extremely dangerous travel conditions, and power outages are also possible,” according to the National Weather Service.

Travel and schools affected

More than 1,000 flights have been canceled Wednesday, according to FlightAware. The majority of those cancellations are at Denver International Airport (DIA), where a blizzard warning is in effect. Southwest, Frontier and United have canceled flights and more cancellations and delays are possible, DIA said.

DEN team members preparing for tomorrow’s snow storm

Denver Int’l Airport@DENAirport

The calm before the storm. DEN team members are preparing for tomorrow’s snow storm. We are anticipating some possible delays and cancellations, be sure to check your flight status with your airline. #cowx #BombCyclone

Multiple Colorado school districts, including the Denver Public Schools are closed Wednesday “due to severe weather and road conditions,” the district announced Tuesday.

All school-related events and activities that were scheduled for Wednesday are also canceled. Denver is under a blizzard warning, and snow accumulations of five to eight inches are expected.

Thunderstorms across portions of the southern Plains will make way on Wednesday for sustained winds of 35 to 45 mph, akin to the strength of a low-end tropical storm. NWS has issued high wind watches for more than 8 million people.

Gusts up to 100 mph

Wind gusts of 50 to 70 mph are expected Wednesday afternoon through Thursday morning across Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma, CNN meteorologist Monica Garrett said. Some areas could see gusts as strong as 100 mph, which is equivalent to the wind speed of a Category 2 hurricane.

The storm is forecast to rapidly intensify overnight Wednesday east of the Colorado Rockies and trek slowly northeast through Thursday, delivering a variety of extreme weather from New Mexico to the Midwest. Snow is expected to taper off by midday Thursday, but strong winds may persist through the evening.

In addition, flood watches have been issued across the Midwest and Great Plains amid concerns that heavy rains will melt snowpack and trigger significant flooding. Flash flooding is possible if ice jams clog rivers and streams, the weather service noted.

CNN’s Haley Brink and Joe Sutton contributed to this

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Source: https://us.cnn.com/2019/03/13/us/winter-storm-blizzard-wednesday-wxc/index.html

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BLADENBORO, N.C. — Ten days after Hurricane Florence came ashore, the storm caused fresh chaos Monday across the Carolinas, where rivers kept rising and thousands more people were told to be ready to evacuate.

Authorities urged up to 8,000 people in Georgetown County, on the South Carolina coast, to be prepared to flee from potential flood zones. A “record event” of up to 10 feet of flooding was expected to begin Tuesday near parts of the Pee Dee and Waccamaw rivers, county spokeswoman Jackie Broach-Akers said.

Residents along the Waccamaw braced for water predicted to peak Wednesday at 22 feet near Conway. That’s twice the normal flood stage and far higher than the previous record of 17.9 feet, according to charts published Monday by the National Weather Service.

Pastor Willie Lowrimore and several members of his church spent Saturday sandbagging and spreading plastic sheets around the sanctuary of The Fellowship With Jesus Ministries church on the banks of the Waccamaw in Yauhannah, South Carolina, about 20 miles south of Myrtle Beach.

The nearly black, reeking water seeped around and over the sandbags around 2 a.m. Monday. By noon, it was several inches deep.

With the church pews moved to a flatbed trailer on higher ground, Lowrimore sat in a rocking chair listening to the normally calm river rush by, ruining the church he built almost 20 years ago.

“I’m going to go one day at a time. Put it in the Lord’s hands. My hands aren’t big enough,” he said.

In North Carolina, the Cape Fear and Neuse rivers remained swollen and were not expected to return to normal levels until October, the charts show.

“Florence continues to bring misery to North Carolina,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said Sunday evening in a statement.

Most of the Carolinas have seen the worst of the flooding, but people need to remain cautious, said Todd Hamill, a hydrologist at the National Weather Service’s Southeast River Forecast Center. With most rivers having crested, that water is moving toward the coast, he said.

Parts of Interstate 40 are expected to remain underwater for another week or more, and hundreds of smaller roads remain impassable. But there was some good news: Interstate 95 was reopened to all traffic Sunday night for the first time since the floods.

Floodwaters already receding on one stretch of Interstate 40 left thousands of rotting fish on the pavement for firefighters to clean up.

Crews conducted about 350 rescues over the weekend, and travel remains treacherous in the southeastern area of the state, the governor added. National Guard members would be shifting to more door-to-door and air-search checks on people in still-flooded areas.

The storm has claimed at least 43 lives since slamming into the coast Sept. 14.

On Monday, Republican education leaders in North Carolina announced planned legislation to assure teachers at still-shuttered schools that they will get paid without using vacation time. The proposal was part of broader disaster funding that the General Assembly will consider in an anticipated special session.

In Washington, lawmakers considered almost $1.7 billion in new money for disaster relief and recovery, even as they face a deadline this week to fund the government before the Oct. 1 start of the new budget year.

The chairman of the House Appropriations Committee said the money would be available as grants to states to help rebuild housing and public works, as well as assist businesses. GOP Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey called it “a first round” and said lawmakers are ready to act quickly if the federal disaster relief agency also needs more money.

The economic research firm Moody’s Analytics estimated that Florence has caused around $44 billion in damage and lost output, which would make it one of the 10 costliest U.S. hurricanes. The worst disaster, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, cost $192.2 billion in today’s dollars. Last year’s Hurricane Harvey cost $133.5 billion.

Associated Press writers Jeffrey Collins in Yauhannah, South Carolina; Meg Kinnard in Galivants Ferry, South Carolina; Denise Lavoie in Richmond, Virginia; Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama and Michael Biesecker in Washington contributed to this report.

MORE

• Hurricane Florence strengthens as experts warn of ‘large-scale disaster’
• Carolinas brace for extremely dangerous Hurricane Florence
• Washington, DC, declares state of emergency head of Hurricane Florence
• ‘Big and vicious’: Hurricane Florence closes in on Carolinas
• Hurricane Florence could flood many waste sites, creating toxic brew
• Slaves’ descendants have long history of enduring hurricanes
• Hurricane Florence: 10 million in crosshairs of storm’s uncertain track
• EDITORIAL: Hurricane Florence and Trump’s tweets really have us worried
• Florence’s flooding claims 3.4 million poultry, 5,500 hogs
• Trump arrives in North Carolina to survey Florence damage
• New evacuations ordered because of Florence flooding
• Carolinas farms could take billions in losses from Hurricane Florence

Source: https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/hurricane-florence-carolinas-flood-zones-warning-rising-rivers/

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(CNN)Zivile Roditis has spent the last week anxiously watching the Kilauea volcano, belching and churning molten lava into her neighborhood in Leilani Estates.

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A tornado watch issued by the National Weather Service expired for most counties at 11 p.m., but will remain in effect for some eastern counties, including Edgecombe and Nash, until 3 a.m..

A tornado warning was issued for Vance and Warren counties Sunday night, but quickly expired.

A flash flood watch has been issued for multiple counties, including Wake, Cumberland, Chatham, Johnston, Durham and Orange, until 2 a.m.

“We are now seeing this as more of a flash flooding event than a severe weather event,” WRAL meteorologist Mike Maze said.

More than 3,000 power outages were reported in Cary and more than 2,000 were without power in Durham during the peak of the storm in the Triangle.

Many throughout the Triangle reported downed trees and flooding on area roadways.

Multiple trees and power lines were downed near the intersection of Edgemont Road and Sadie Drive in Wendell. The National Weather Service was investigating the potential of a tornado touchdown.

According to Maze, radar images were showing a “debris ball” in Guilford County, which is evidence that a tornado had touched down in the area.

Authorities said a state of emergency has been declared in Guilford County after at least one person died as a result of the weather. Authorities said the deceased person, who was not identified, died when a tree fell onto a car.

Photos from the scene showed trees in the middle of the road, roofs that had been ripped off houses and a mobile home had been lifted across the ground and blown across the street.

According to NBC affiliate WXII, confirmed tornadoes were reported in Danville and Chatham and thousands were without power as a result of the storm. Officials said dozens of power lines were down throughout the county.

Officials said many schools in Guilford County were without power Sunday night as a result of the storm and Hampton Elementary School was severely damaged.

All Guilford County schools will be closed Monday as a result of storm damage around the county.

“The recent severe weather in North Carolina has affected families and schools. This evening, I talked to Superintendent Contreras is Guilford County and assured her that we at the Department of Public Instruction will help in any way we can. We will be reaching out to other affected school districts Monday as well,” State Superintendent Mark Johnson said in a statement.

Crews in Greensboro will begin a full damage assessment Monday morning.

Check out a 1-hour loop view of radar from the Dual Doppler 5000

Monday will be calmer, but cooler, with a high around 60 degrees. Wednesday and Thursday will be the warmest days of the week, with highs in the upper 70s.

Source: http://www.wral.com/tornado-watch-issued-for-triangle-surrounding-areas-until-11-pm/17487977/

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Officials at Jacksonville State University in Calhoun County, about 60 miles northeast of Birmingham, reported major damage to the roofs of the school’s basketball arena and two of its freshman dormitories, Patterson and Logan halls.

No injuries were immediately confirmed at the college, which is on spring break. University police were going door to door to check on any students who may have been on campus, the school said late Monday.

The National Weather Service confirmed that a large tornado hit the area at about 8:40 p.m. (9:40 p.m. ET). Jacksonville fire officials said that numerous homes had sustained significant damage and that fire crews were working to clear roads to get to anyone who may have been trapped in the wreckage.

Calhoun County Sheriff Matthew Wade said West Point Baptist Church was destroyed. The county Board of Education said all schools would be closed on Tuesday.

A possible tornado was also reported Monday afternoon in Franklin County, in the northern part of the state. The state Emergency Management Agency said Monday night that almost all city buses and many police vehicles were extensively damaged in the town of Cullman, near Huntsville, where more than 1,000 customers were without power.

The fire department and a Waffle House restaurant were damaged in Russellville, NBC affiliate WAFF of Huntsville reported, while homes, trees and power lines were damaged in Ardmore in nearby Limestone County.

On the front end of the system, heavy rain, wind and thunderstorms caused flooding in parts of metropolitan Atlanta, NBC affiliate WXIA reported. Tornado watches and severe thunderstorm warnings were in effect near midnight in several counties in the northern and central parts of the state, where utilities reported that more than 50,000 customers were without power at 1 a.m. ET.

The National Weather Service said the storms were caused by warm, humid air and low pressure across the lower Mississippi valley on Monday. A cold front tracking in the system’s wake was expected to spread heavy rain and winds, with some damaging tornadoes likely, across the Southeast on Tuesday, it said.

“This is an ongoing threat,” said Heather Tesch, a meteorologist for The Weather Channel, who said the brunt of the system would likely be centered on northern and central Florida and the coasts of Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/tornado-strong-winds-hit-alabama-ahead-major-southeastern-storms-n858126

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