Storms rake Deep South, 1 week after deadly tornado outbreak

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — High winds, hail and thunderstorms pounded parts of the Deep South on Sunday as forecasters warned residents to brace for possible tornadoes and flooding across a region still reeling from a deadly storm outbreak a week earlier.

Tornado watches ranged across parts of Louisiana and Mississippi into Alabama and Georgia on Sunday night. More than 24,000 customers were without electricity during the day, according to www.poweroutage.us.

It was the second Sunday in a row that the South was hit with severe weather.

Flash flood warnings were in effect around the region, the National Weather Service said. High winds had uprooted trees and left blankets of hail on the ground in some areas in Alabama earlier in the day, the National Weather Service reported.

“Two to three inches of rain has already fallen and an additional one to two inches is possible,” the agency said on its website.

A second wave of storms began intensifying Sunday night and carried the risk of strong tornadoes into the early hours Monday, the National Weather Service said. Tornadoes were a possibility for parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. South Carolina also was in the projected path of the storms.

A zone stretching from the Texas-Louisiana eastward across the southern parts of Mississippi, Alabama and into Georgia will be at greatest risk of severe weather and tornadoes, the national Storm Prediction Center projected. The area is home to more than 5 million people and includes cities such as Jackson, Mississippi; Montgomery, Alabama; and Macon, Georgia.

Predictions of damaging winds and a continued tornado threat also extended across Georgia and parts of South Carolina into the night.

The storm threat comes a week after deadly Easter storms pounded the Deep South. The National Weather Service said more than 100 tornadoes struck the South that Sunday and Monday. Officials said at least 36 people were killed in the two-day outbreak of storms.