At least three people were killed in Tennessee and North Carolina as tornadoes and thunderstorms carved a path of destruction through the South on Wednesday.
A 22-year-old man driving in northeast Tennessee’s Claiborne County was killed when a tree fell on his vehicle, officials said.
In Columbia, Tenn., another person was killed and four others were hospitalized due to the storms, CBS News reported. Weather experts believe a tornado touched down in the city about 40 miles south of Nashville.
And in North Carolina, the storms knocked a tree onto a car with two people in it, authorities said. One of the occupants was killed and the other was hospitalized after the incident in Gaston County, just west of Charlotte.
More than 130,000 people in the two states still didn’t have power as of Thursday morning, according to Poweroutage.us. The storms also knocked out power and brought devastation to parts of Alabama and Georgia.
A tornado touched down in Henagar, Ala., late Wednesday, injuring at least two people and trapping dozens of others in their homes about 40 miles east of Huntsville, according to CBS News.
Several school districts northeast of Atlanta canceled classes Thursday due to storm damage, including reports of trees falling on houses.
The severe weather was expected to continue Thursday, with tornado watches in effect throughout vast portions of Alabama and Georgia, as well as parts of South Carolina.
Storm systems have wreaked havoc across the Great Plains, Midwest and South all week. On Monday, a tornado killed one person in the 1,000-person town of Barnsdall, Okla. And on Tuesday, 50 people were temporarily trapped in a collapsed FedEx building in Portage, Mich. after storms rolled through that city.
At least one tornado has been recorded in the U.S. every day since April 25.
With News Wire Services
