Potential for strong storms continues today
♦ Schools and government offices will delay opening.
The second wave of potentially strong storms is expected to roll through Northwest Georgia this morning.
Rome City Schools is delaying opening for two hours due to a forecast risk of severe weather in the early morning hours. Floyd County Schools are off for a parent teacher conference day.
All nonessential Floyd County government offices, including judicial services, are delaying opening until 10 a.m. Essential personnel will report as scheduled.
All campuses of Georgia Northwestern Technical College will remain closed until 10 a.m.
Rain has been pummeling Floyd County, with nearly two inches falling as of Wednesday afternoon. A flash flood watch is in effect until at least 8 a.m. and more rain is expected throughout the day.
Check the Rome NewsTribune website for weather updates this morning.
The Associated Press reported late Wednesday that a wave of storms pounded the Deep South, leaving a trail of splintered trees and damaged buildings — and forecasters said still stronger ones were on the way with the potential for massive tornadoes, downpours and hail the size of baseballs.
While nearly 16 million people in the Southeast could see powerful storms, the Storm Prediction Center said, a region of about 3 million stretching from southeastern Arkansas and northeastern Louisiana across Mississippi into Alabama was at high risk for big twisters that stay on the ground for miles, straight winds up to 80 mph and destructive hail.
The NWS forecast late Wednesday noted that as these cells push into the cooler Georgia airmass they will begin to lose intensity and transition to elevated storms, but the dividing line was still unclear and would be evolving throughout the night.
Possible tornadoes knocked down trees, toppled power lines and damaged homes in rural Chilton County and the Alabama communities of Burnsville and Moundville, where power was out and trees blocked a main highway.
“Downtown Moundville got it. Some roofs and stuff got taken off houses,” said Michael Brown, whose family owns Moundville Ace Hardware and Building. “There’s a lot of trees down. I guess it had to be a tornado; it got out of here pretty fast.”
Additional damage was reported in Louisiana, Tennessee and Mississippi, where video showed an apparent tornado at Brookhaven. High winds blew down signs and trees in northeast Texas, and hailstones the size of baseballs were reported near the Alabama-mississippi line, the weather service said.
More than 70,000 homes and businesses were without power from Texas to Alabama, and radar showed additional storms moving across the region as initial cleanup work began.
Storms were possible all the way from northern Texas in the west to northern Illinois and as far east as the Carolinas, the forecasters said, and the weather service issued more than 50 tornado warnings in Alabama, Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi and Oklahoma. Tornado watches included parts of seven states.