At least 4 killed after a storm system spawn multiple tornadoes across the southern U.S.
Officials assessed the damage on Sunday after a strong storm system moved across the southern U.S. over the weekend, spawning tornadoes and killing at least four people.
There were at least 45 reports of tornado damage across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, said Brian Hurley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center. Crews will do damage surveys to confirm tornadoes.
In the Houston area, National Weather Service storm survey crews confirmed that at least five tornadoes hit north and south of the city on Saturday.
One person died in the Liverpool area, located south of Houston. The 48-year-old woman was found about 100 feet from her home in the Liverpool area south of Houston, said Madison Polston of the Brazoria County Sheriff's Office. She said the exact cause of death wasn't immediately known.
Polston said there were "multiple touchdown points" in the county between Liverpool and Hillcrest Village and Alvin. She said that so far officials knew of around 10 damaged homes but were still working to determine the extent of the damage.
In North Carolina, a 70-year-old man was killed Sunday in Statesville, just north of Charlotte, when a tree landed on the pickup truck he was driving. Highway Patrol Trooper DJ Maffucci said "it was just a freak accident" and that he believed Matthew Teeple, of Cleveland, North Carolina, was killed instantly.
"It's very sad, just terrible timing," Maffucci said, adding that the storms were responsible for a number of downed trees and "quite a few wrecks."
In the southwestern Mississippi city of Natchez, severe weather was responsible for one death and two injuries, Malary White, spokesperson for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, told CBS News in an email. She did not immediately provide details on the circumstances of the death. Another two people were injured in neighboring Franklin County, White added.
The National Weather Service said two tornadoes hit around the nearby southwestern Mississippi cities of Bude and Brandon, ripping the roofs from several buildings.
"These storms are probably going to get a lot worse this evening and overnight the further east you go," said Josh Lichter, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
It appeared that at least six tornadoes touched down in the Houston area, though they may discover there were more when crews go out to survey the damage, Litcher said. He said there was damage in the area from both tornadoes and straight-line winds.
Jason Smith, deputy chief of staff for Montgomery County, which is located just north of Houston, told CBS News in an email that 50 to 100 homes were damaged by severe weather that downed trees and powerlines.
Smith added that at least two people were hospitalized, but so far there were no reports of critical injuries.
Mobile homes were damaged or destroyed in the Montgomery County communities of Katy and Porter Heights, where the doors of a fire station were blown in, the weather service said.
The storms also caused departure delays of over an hour Saturday afternoon at Houston's two main airports — Bush Intercontinental and Hobby — according to the website FlightAware.
As of Sunday night, over 30,000 people were still without power in Mississippi, according to electric utility tracking website PowerOutage.us.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency did not have any official damage reports but expected them to come in later. First responders were focused on ensuring people's safety and making sure everyone was accounted for, according to White.
"We do anticipate more thorough damage assessments starting in the early morning hours," she told the Associated Press.
The National Weather Service office in Birmingham, Alabama, issued overnight severe thunderstorm warnings for several areas in the southern part of the state, advising residents to seek shelter to avoid possible damaging winds up to 60 mph.
Severe weather has hit several portions of the U.S. throughout the holiday week. On Thursday, a series of thunderstorms caused ground stops at both Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field.