A storm that forecasters said could bring gusts of up to 60 mph from the Carolinas into New England was churning through the eastern U.S. Friday after leaving a trail of damage farther south.
The National Weather Service has dozens of watches, warnings and advisories in effect along the eastern seaboard as conditions become more hazardous.
“The winter storm which brought damaging thunderstorms, flooding, snow and ice to the Eastern U.S. Thursday, will rapidly strengthen Friday while lifting north across the Northeast,” it said on its website. “Heavy snow and blowing snow will make for dangerous travel from the eastern Great Lakes into northern Maine.”
More than 300,000 homes and businesses in the southeastern U.S. were without power early Friday after storms raked the region. Several people were killed.
Fallen trees rest on a damaged postal truck at an apartment complex where a reported tornado passed through on Thursday in Spartanburg, S.C. (AP)
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North Carolina had the most customers without electricity on Friday, followed by Virginia, according to the PowerOutage.US website.
The weather destroyed mobile homes in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, caused mudslides in Tennessee and Kentucky and flooded communities that shoulder waterways across the Appalachian region. Rain kept falling over a path of splintered trees and sagging power lines that stretched from Louisiana into Virginia.
Up to eight inches of snow was predicted in West Virginia on Friday, while Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency because of heavy rains and extreme flooding. More than 500 people in southwestern Virginia had to be rescued from their homes amid flooding, he said in a statement.
As much as four inches of snow fell overnight in Ohio. Blowing snow contributed to several accidents in the Akron area, and the Ohio Department of Transportation urged people to make room for nearly 1,300 state crews working to improve the icy conditions.
Winston-Salem Fire Department firefighters with the Rescue Task Force rescue Donald Harold from his home at Liberty Landing Apartments as flood waters rise around the building on Thursday, in Winston-Salem, N.C. (AP/The Winston-Salem Journal)
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Meanwhile, the Tennessee Valley Authority warned that people near rivers and lakes should prepare for rapidly changing water levels. The TVA is managing rising water behind 49 dams to avert major flooding, but with more rain expected next week, the agency may have to release water downstream, said James Everett, senior manager of the TVA's river forecast center in Knoxville.
Tornados caused minor damage in the Tampa Bay, Fla. area, where a tree was blown onto a mobile home, trapping an elderly woman who was later hospitalized. A crane topped over at an interstate construction site on I-275.
Authorities confirmed five storm-related fatalities, in Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee.
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One person was killed and another was injured as high winds destroyed two mobile homes near the town of Demopolis, Ala., the Storm Prediction Center reported. The victim, Anita Rembert, was in one of the homes with her husband, child and two grandchildren, said Kevin McKinney, emergency management director for Marengo County. A man was injured, but the children were unhurt, he said.
A driver died in South Carolina when a tree fell on an SUV near Fort Mill, Highway Patrol Master Trooper Gary Miller said. The driver's name wasn't immediately released.
In North Carolina's Gaston County, Terry Roger Fisher was killed after his pickup truck hydroplaned in heavy rain, plunged down a 25-foot embankment and overturned in a creek, the North Carolina State Highway Patrol said, according to news outlets.
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An unidentified man died and two others were injured Thursday when a car hydroplaned in Knoxville, and hit a truck, police said in a news release.
And in Tennessee, 36-year-old teacher Brooke Sampson was killed and four people were injured when a rain-soaked tree fell on a van carrying Sevierville city employees, officials said. The crash, though still under investigation, appeared to have been weather-related, according to preliminary information, said Tennessee Highway Patrol spokesman Lt. Bill Miller.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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