Storm spurs tornado reports, damage and heavy snow

A sprawling storm hit the South with tornado warnings and high winds that blew roofs off homes, flipped over campers and tossed about furniture in Florida on Tuesday. Another storm brought cities across the Midwest to a standstill with more than half a foot of snow, stranding people on highways as it headed to the Northeast.

At least three deaths in the South were attributed to the storm, where 55 mph winds and hail moved through the Florida Panhandle and into parts of Alabama and Georgia by sunrise Tuesday, along with at least several reports of radar-confirmed tornadoes, the National Weather Service

said. A wind gust of 106 mph was recorded before dawn near the coast in Walton County, Fla.

Near Cottonwood, Ala., a small city near the Georgia and Florida borders, 81-year-old Charlotte Paschal was killed when her mobile home was tossed from its foundation, the Houston County coroner said. A suspected tornado had touched down in the area.

Police in Clayton County, south of Atlanta, say a man died during heavy rain when a tree fell on his car on a state highway in Jonesboro.

Storm-related injuries were reported in Florida, but no deaths. A section of Panama City Beach, Fla., showed parts of roofs blown away, furniture, fences and debris strewn about and a house that appeared tilted on side, leaning on another home.

In Panama City, about 10 miles away, police early Tuesday asked residents to stay indoors and off the roads “unless absolutely necessary” as officers checked on damage from the storms, including downed power lines and trees.

The city is in Bay County, where there had been multiple reports of tornadoes on the ground, Sheriff Tommy Ford said in a brief Facebook Live post.

“We’ve rescued people out of structures,” he said.

The department urged people to stay home, posting photos of crumpled structures and debris and a message that those who have taken to the roads to see it are “making it very difficult for first responders who are rushing to help people who may be trapped in damaged homes and injured.”

The Walton County sheriff’s department in the Florida Panhandle posted photos of power lines draped across a road, damage to a gas station and large pieces of building materials littering the area.

Heading east

In the Midwest, where a snowstorm started Monday, up to 12 inches of snow could blanket a broad area stretching from southeastern Colorado all the way to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, including western Kansas, eastern Nebraska,

large parts of Iowa, northern Missouri and northwestern Illinois, said Bob Oravec, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in College Park, Md.

From there, the storm was expected to head east, bringing a combination of snow, rain and strong winds to the Northeast by Tuesday night, as well as concerns about flooding in areas such as New England, parts of which got more than a foot of snow Sunday.

Nearly 8 inches of snow fell in the northern city of Athol, Kan., on Monday. The weather service office in Lincoln, Neb., predicted an additional 3-5 inches was possible overnight, with winds possibly gusting as high as 40 mph.

Whiteout conditions in central Nebraska closed a long stretch of Interstate 80, while Kansas closed Interstate 70 from the central city of Russell all the way west to the Colorado border due to dangerous travel conditions. Several vehicles slid off I-70 in the northeastern part of the state, authorities said.

In Nebraska, federal courts in Omaha and Lincoln closed Monday, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers increased the water flow at a Missouri River dam on the Nebraska-South Dakota border near Yankton to reduce the chance of ice jams forming.

Dubuque, on Iowa’s eastern border with Illinois, closed its city offices Tuesday. Schools in Cedar Rapids in eastern Iowa were among those also closing.