The National Weather Service is predicting severe thunderstorms with damaging winds and some strong tornadoes along the Gulf Coast from eastern Louisiana to Alabama.
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A storm system that’s killed at least three people in Louisiana and MS is expected to bring severe weather to SC.
Schools across south Louisiana and MS canceled classes ahead of the storm. In the video above – filmed on February 23rd around 4 p.m.in LaPlace, La. – you can see rain soaking the ground and fierce winds tossing lawn furniture like toys.
Survey teams from the weather service began investigating the damage Wednesday to determine how many tornadoes formed.
Meanwhile, the damage left behind in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida stands as a grim warning to those states braced for impact on Wednesday afternoon into Wednesday night, officials said.
At least 88 million people along the East Coast were at some sort of risk of severe weather Wednesday, the Storm Prediction Center said. Three people were killed and dozens were injured.
The governor declared a state of emergency in seven parishes that bore the brunt of the storms.
More than two dozen tornadoes were reported across five Southern states Tuesday in a deadly outbreak of storms that punished the Gulf, reports CBS News correspondent David Begnaud.
A possible tornado ripped through Pensacola, Florida, on Tuesday evening, destroying an apartment complex and downing trees and power lines.
An estimated 160 RVs and campers were at the park when the tornado hit.
Virginia State Police say there are now three confirmed deaths from a storm that spawned a tornado that ravaged the tiny farming town of Waverly.
Just north of Oxford, North Carolina, near the Virginia border, high winds damaged several houses, one of them blown “completely apart”, Granville County Sheriff Brindell Wilkins said, adding that power outages were widespread.
“This is one of our bigger outbreaks we’ve ever had”, said Ken Graham, meteorologist in charge for the service’s office in Slidell, Louisiana.
In Florida, the National Weather Service said a tornado hit Pensacola. There were no immediate reports of injuries, Deputy Robert Martin said, after two tornadoes reportedly moved through.
The sheriff said it’s not clear if the damage came from straight line winds or a tornado.
Seven people were critically injured, St. James Parish Sheriff Willy J. Martin said.
In Florida’s Escambia County, more than 70 homes were destroyed and more than 2,700 homes are without power, Gov. Rick Scott said in a press conference Wednesday morning. He said he struggled to keep his footing in the wind, and it almost knocked his wife down.
Severe weather has been moving through southern Louisiana and Mississippi.
Ron Messina, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, said the two people were killed in the town of Waverly on Wednesday.
A possible tornado hit Waverly, Virginia, killing three people, one a 2-year-old boy, Corinne Geller, a spokeswoman for the state police, said in a news release.
Numerous residents were home when the twister hit, having been dismissed early from work because of the approaching storms.
Storms were expected to hit southwestern Georgia by midnight and could reach Atlanta and central Georgia before the morning rush hour on Wednesday, meteorologist Adam Baker said.
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Another tornado was reported in Prairieville, 20 miles east of Baton Rouge.
