“This whole area got hit hard with this storm”, Saul Schmolitz, a lieutenant with Union Fire Company, said at the scene of a downed 40-foot pine tree on Park Street in East Manchester Township. Numerous other structures in the region were damaged or destroyed, including an apartment complex in Pensacola, Florida.
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Meteorologist Jake Ruckman says crews confirmed that a tornado touched down in Appomattox, leaving an eight- to ten-mile path of debris. There were no confirmed fatalities.
In Paincourtville, the wind downed a water tower, he said. Dozens of injuries were reported in the area. A Metro-North official says the train suffered minor damage when it struck the tree.
A chain of people pass poultry amongst the debris of a farm in the aftermath of a storm Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016, in Gap, Pa. Crews in central and eastern Pennsylvania are working to restore electricity after strong storms moved across the state and possibly caused some tornadoes.
Harris got out of his auto to see if he could help, and was stunned by the damage and realized it was from a storm.
There was no word on any injuries.
The National Weather Service plans to send a storm survey team to Lancaster County on Thursday to determine if a tornado touched down.
Rusnak says the Waverly tornado was rated an EF1, with wind speeds of 100 to 110 miles per hour.
Power outages continue to plague much of the Carolinas, without thousands of residents lacking power.
Seven others were hurt after the storms Wednesday.
Snow was the story in the Midwest, where schools were shuttered in several states. “The 30-year-old woman who survived is the mother of the 2-year-old and she remains hospitalized”, according to Virginia State Police. This tornado blew out underpinnings on two mobile homes, and tore off a large piece of aluminum siding from a barn. “The bodies were transported to the Office of the Medical Examiner in Norfolk for positive identification”.
“The low pressure was moving so far away from the area”. Witnesses said that the storm swept through Waverly with little warning, the AP reported. In its wake, more than 100 structures were damaged. Police have not released the victims’ names.
Waverly is about 50 miles south of Richmond.
Down the block, Rose Fuselier, 80, had a gaping hole where the front window once stood. That’s when the door burst open.
“People are devastated”, he said.
In Waverly, the town’s former mayor said she left her job, 14 miles outside town, just before 3 p.m. Wednesday. As many as 200 homes in the area were damaged Tuesday.
On Wednesday the storm moved on to the East Coast where a possible tornado hit Waverly, Virginia in the afternoon, killing at least two people according to the Associated Press.
Four people, including a two-year-old boy, were killed in Virginia.
Messina could not provide the victims’ identities or details about how they died.
The US southeast and mid-Atlantic region have been lashed by violent thunderstorms and tornadoes that killed several people. Dozens of other people were injured. “We’re swamped with tornadoes on the ground here”, Brandon Dunston, Weather Service forecaster in Raleigh, North Carolina, said, according to Reuters.
Gov. Terry McAuliffe made Appomattox his first of three stops to assess the damage. She says about 20 of those were severely damaged, including some that were flattened.
The storms killed three people in Louisiana and MS on Tuesday.
In Waverly, Larry D. Turner, 50; Devine J. Stringfield, 26; and 2-year-old Ivan T. Lewis died Wednesday afternoon when a twister hit Turner’s mobile home in a neighborhood sandwiched between railroad tracks and USA 460. The Carolinas and Virginia are predicted to incur the brunt of the severe weather Wednesday.
Tornadoes ripped across the southern USA on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing at least seven, with strong winds killing one.
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“It’s so sad to see these families and friends walking through the debris just trying to find some memento”, McAuliffe said.
