Powerful storm system brings twisters, flooding
A deadly storm system continued to drench much of the Great Lakes and Northeast on Friday as authorities and residents in the South surveyed damage in the wake of widespread flooding and over a dozen tornadoes.
By Friday morning, 1 to 3 inches of rain had fallen ahead of a looming cold front from Indiana and Ohio to Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland, according to AccuWeather. More than 35,000 homes and businesses in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maine were without power, according to a USA TODAY database.
In the South, more than 20,000 utility customers in Louisiana reported outages Friday. Most were in West Feliciana Parish, a rural county north of Baton Rouge, where an EF-1 tornado with winds between 86 mph and 110 mph ripped through on Wednesday.
At New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, more than 90 departing flights were delayed Friday, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. Boston Logan International Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport had 66 and 59 delays, respectively.
The storm system made a dayslong journey this week over the Gulf Coast, Southeast and Midwest. At least 14 tornadoes were recorded across the Gulf Coast. In Mississippi, the storms damaged 179 homes, injured six people and killed two, according to the state’s Emergency Management Agency.
Shirley Wilson, 64, died Wednesday after the power went out in her town about 50 miles east of Jackson, Scott County coroner Hunter Wolf told the Mississippi Clarion Ledger, part of the USA TODAY Network. Wilson had a number of health problems and used supplemental oxygen, which was disconnected when she lost power.
Shanika Newton, 43, died in Leflore County, Mississippi, after her car hydroplaned and landed in a flooded ditch where she drowned, said county Deputy Coroner Will Gnemi.
More than 10 inches of rain were recorded in parts of northern Florida, Texas and Louisiana, where flash floods inflicted large amounts of damage. Throughout the eastern U.S., the heavy rain lifted water levels over the tops of riverbanks, spurring multiple rescues as people became trapped in homes and cars. In Tallahassee, Florida, a major high school flooded, prompting school officials to cancel classes Friday.
Cooler temperatures and powerful winds will spread east from the Midwest, Ohio and Tennessee valleys into Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.
Wind gusts as high as 50 mph were predicted to extend from Idaho to Maine and as far south as Georgia on Friday night, AccuWeather said.
In California, showers and mountain snowfall are expected to continue into Saturday as a storm system rolls in from the Pacific coast, the weather service said. Heavy rain is forecast for the coast as several inches of snow builds up across the northern Coastal Ranges, Klamath Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. As the system moves inland, cooler temperatures will follow.
Contributing: Pam Dankins, Mississippi Clarion Ledger