Southeast bracing for potential tornadoes

BIRMINGHAM, ALA. — Hundreds of schools, COVID19 vaccination clinics, businesses and more shut down across the Deep South on Wednesday as forecasters warned of waves of severe weather including massive tornadoes, downpours and hail the size of tennis balls.

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.

Storms were possible all the way from northern Texas in the west to northern Illinois and as far east as the Carolinas.

The weather service issued tornado warnings in Texas,

Mississippi and Alabama, but there were no immediate reports of damage. Tornado watches included parts of six states.

Dozens of schools systems in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi canceled classes, switched to online learning or dismissed students early, and Mississippi State University moved to virtual teaching because of the potential for danger at its campuses in Starkville and Meridian.

Large vaccination clinics where hundreds of people an hour can get shots without leaving their vehicles were canceled in Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee.

At least two waves of storms were likely, forecasters said, and the worst might not hit until a cold front passes overnight.

Gov. Kay Ivey placed Alabama under a state of emergency, and communities across the South used social media to share the location of tornado shelters.