Storms, tornadoes rip across the Southeast

ATLANTA — Severe storms that spawned tornadoes damaged homes and downed trees as they moved across the Southeast on Monday night.

Forecasters warned that the storms could threaten more than 29 million people, raising the risk of powerful tornadoes, damaging winds and hail the size of tennis balls.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said there has been significant damage in parts of Alabama.

Ivey said state resources were being sent to the affected areas, especially Jacksonville and Calhoun County, in her statement Monday night.

Cities in northern Alabama reported power outages, and the National Weather Service in Huntsville reported at least three confirmed tornadoes in the area.

In Alabama’s Limestone County, on the Tennessee border, the sheriff ’s office posted photos online of houses with roofs ripped off and outbuildings torn from their foundations. Several roads were closed because of power lines or trees, the office tweeted. But it had no reports of injuries from the storms.

Portions of northern Alabama and southern Tennessee were still under tornado warnings Monday night, and the National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for much of northern Georgia as the line moved eastward.

Forecasters said the storm threat is unusually dangerous because of the possibility of several tornadoes, some of which could be intense. The weather service says hail as large as 3 inches in diameter could fall, and there’s a possibility of wind gusts to 70 mph.

“The potential for strong to violent, long-track tornadoes is a real possibility,” Alabama state meteorologist Jim Stefkovic said at a news conference.

Jeff Smitherman of Alabama Emergency Management raised the threat level and increased staffing at his agency. The storms are the first severe weather to threaten the state this year.

School systems from central Tennessee as far south as Birmingham, Ala., let out early, hoping students and staff would have time to get home before the storms moved through.