Severe weather worries have once again proved to be worth the fright in the southern U.S. after storms fired to life on Friday afternoon and tore across the South into Saturday morning.
The stormy conditions continued throughout Saturday as thunderstorms worked their way to Florida, where heavy rain and winds disrupted major events and reached near-historic speeds.
At least two fatalities have been reported from the outbreak, as strong winds sent a tree toppling onto a mobile home near Blanchard, Louisiana, on Friday evening, claiming the life of a 48-year-old man, the Caddo Parish Sheriff's Office confirmed to AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell.
Neighbors of the victim told Wadell that the storms had been nearby and that winds at the time of the tragedy had been notably strong.
Previously, St. Landry Parish President Jessie Bellard told AccuWeather National Reporter Kim Leoffler one person was killed and seven others injured from the tornado in the area.
On Saturday, Loeffler reported from Bolton Road in Palmetto, Louisiana, where cars where left upside down and debris was scattered throughout the town. A suspected tornado moved through the area overnight, awakening resident Eva Council and her husband.
“We heard the wind coming strong and my husband said “Okay, let’s move” and so we across and came in here,” Council said, standing amid the debris of her badly damaged home. “Glass was coming in from the door right there and we could hear as everything was starting to crumble.”
Despite the Council’s roof being ripped off, the couple escaped to the bathroom where they safely waited out the storm in the bath tub.
“Everything just crumbled around us, but we were okay,” she said. “The only thing I remember thinking was ‘We trust you Lord, no matter what happens.’”
Those winds pushed eastward on Saturday and left similarly brutal impacts on businesses, homes and events in the state.
In Jacksonville, winds reached a peak of 60 mph on Saturday afternoon according to recordings taken at Jacksonville International Airport, shattering the previous daily record wind gust from 1956. The 60 mph recording was the second-strongest gust in state history for the month of April, only eclipsed by a 67 mph recording in 1992.
On Saturday evening, the ongoing thunderstorms forced the evacuation of Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, where the WWE is hosting its annual Wrestlemania event outdoors. The steady rain and threat of lightning forced fans in attendance to be temporarily evacuated an hour before the wrestling was set to begin.
Farther north, in the Florida panhandle, a possible tornado caused widespread damage in Panama City on Saturday as well. On Facebook, the city reported damage to a house and Blu Convenient Store on Front Beach Road and Wells Street. At least three people escaped from these structures with minor injuries. There are also reports of an overturned structure damage from lightning strikes.
By Saturday evening, shortly before 8 p.m. local time, 45,000 Florida residents were without power due to the conditions, according to PowerOutage.us.
The towering storms originally erupted in eastern Oklahoma, western Arkansas and northeastern Texas on Friday afternoon and evening, producing fierce, damaging wind gusts and widespread hail.
In Texas, hailstones up to 3.0 inches in diameter --larger than a baseball -- plummeted to earth. Over 200 reports of hail poured in from across the South Friday and Friday night.
Thousands of residents across Louisiana and Mississippi also saw their power flicker out as the storms moved in later Friday evening. By Saturday morning, power outages skyrocketed to more than 115,000 customers, collectively, from Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi at one point.
Flooding rainfall also became a large issue rather quickly across parts of the South that had already been inundated with rounds of drenching rain since early last month. At one point early Saturday morning, nearly half a million people were under flash flood warnings across the southern tier of Mississippi.
Across southern Mississippi, widespread reports of 1.75 to 3.25 inches of rainfall were recorded in just a six-hour period from late Friday evening into early Saturday morning. In some of the worst flooding instances reported across the area, floodwaters could be seen submerging the bottom-third of cars.
The stormy conditions continued throughout Saturday as thunderstorms worked their way to Florida, where heavy rain and winds disrupted major events and reached near-historic speeds.
At least two fatalities have been reported from the outbreak, as strong winds sent a tree toppling onto a mobile home near Blanchard, Louisiana, on Friday evening, claiming the life of a 48-year-old man, the Caddo Parish Sheriff's Office confirmed to AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell.
Neighbors of the victim told Wadell that the storms had been nearby and that winds at the time of the tragedy had been notably strong.
Previously, St. Landry Parish President Jessie Bellard told AccuWeather National Reporter Kim Leoffler one person was killed and seven others injured from the tornado in the area.
On Saturday, Loeffler reported from Bolton Road in Palmetto, Louisiana, where cars where left upside down and debris was scattered throughout the town. A suspected tornado moved through the area overnight, awakening resident Eva Council and her husband.
“We heard the wind coming strong and my husband said “Okay, let’s move” and so we across and came in here,” Council said, standing amid the debris of her badly damaged home. “Glass was coming in from the door right there and we could hear as everything was starting to crumble.”
Despite the Council’s roof being ripped off, the couple escaped to the bathroom where they safely waited out the storm in the bath tub.
“Everything just crumbled around us, but we were okay,” she said. “The only thing I remember thinking was ‘We trust you Lord, no matter what happens.’”
Those winds pushed eastward on Saturday and left similarly brutal impacts on businesses, homes and events in the state.
In Jacksonville, winds reached a peak of 60 mph on Saturday afternoon according to recordings taken at Jacksonville International Airport, shattering the previous daily record wind gust from 1956. The 60 mph recording was the second-strongest gust in state history for the month of April, only eclipsed by a 67 mph recording in 1992.
On Saturday evening, the ongoing thunderstorms forced the evacuation of Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, where the WWE is hosting its annual Wrestlemania event outdoors. The steady rain and threat of lightning forced fans in attendance to be temporarily evacuated an hour before the wrestling was set to begin.
Farther north, in the Florida panhandle, a possible tornado caused widespread damage in Panama City on Saturday as well. On Facebook, the city reported damage to a house and Blu Convenient Store on Front Beach Road and Wells Street. At least three people escaped from these structures with minor injuries. There are also reports of an overturned structure damage from lightning strikes.
By Saturday evening, shortly before 8 p.m. local time, 45,000 Florida residents were without power due to the conditions, according to PowerOutage.us.
The towering storms originally erupted in eastern Oklahoma, western Arkansas and northeastern Texas on Friday afternoon and evening, producing fierce, damaging wind gusts and widespread hail.
In Texas, hailstones up to 3.0 inches in diameter --larger than a baseball -- plummeted to earth. Over 200 reports of hail poured in from across the South Friday and Friday night.
Thousands of residents across Louisiana and Mississippi also saw their power flicker out as the storms moved in later Friday evening. By Saturday morning, power outages skyrocketed to more than 115,000 customers, collectively, from Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi at one point.
Flooding rainfall also became a large issue rather quickly across parts of the South that had already been inundated with rounds of drenching rain since early last month. At one point early Saturday morning, nearly half a million people were under flash flood warnings across the southern tier of Mississippi.
Across southern Mississippi, widespread reports of 1.75 to 3.25 inches of rainfall were recorded in just a six-hour period from late Friday evening into early Saturday morning. In some of the worst flooding instances reported across the area, floodwaters could be seen submerging the bottom-third of cars.
