One dead as storms continue to pummel southeastern U.S.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Powerful storms left thousands without electricity Friday in Florida and other southeastern states, where damaging winds toppled trees onto homes and power lines following days of deadly severe weather that produced tornadoes in Michigan, Tennessee and other states.
The National Weather Service said wind gusts of 71 mph , just shy of hurricane force, were recorded in Tallahassee, where images posted on social media showed mangled metal and other debris from damaged buildings littering parts of Florida's capital city.
The storm knocked two chimneys from apartment buildings at one Florida complex, where fallen trees covered a row of cars.
“Our area experienced catastrophic wind damage,” Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey said on the social platform X.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said on social media Friday that the state Division of Emergency Management was working with local officials to “do everything possible to return life to normalcy for our residents as quickly as possible.”
A statement from the city of Tallahassee blamed “possible tornadic activity” for the widespread damage in the city of 200,000 people. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
The city said more than 66,000 customers were without electricity and 11 substations suffered damage.
“Restoration will possibly take through the weekend,” the announcement said.
Strong thunderstorms also were expected in Alabama near the Florida panhandle, where gusty winds could knock down tree limbs, the weather service said.
Nearly 230,000 homes and businesses from Mississippi to North Carolina were blacked out Friday afternoon, according to the tracking website poweroutage.us. Most of those outages were in Florida, where lights and air conditioning were out for nearly 160,000 customers.
Several tornado warnings and watches were issued by the National Weather Service on Friday morning, but were lifted by midday as the threat shifted to damaging high winds.
Since Monday, 39 states have been under threat of severe weather and at least four people have died. On Wednesday and Thursday, about 220 million people were under some sort of severe weather risk, said Matthew Elliott, a Storm Prediction Center forecaster.
The weather comes on the heels of a stormy April in which the U.S. had 300 confirmed tornadoes, the second-most on record for the month and the most since 2011.