Strong winds and heavy rain from the mid-Atlantic to the South caused a terrible winter storm that killed at least seven people and cut power to almost half a million people Monday morning.
Police say that four people died in Michigan, two died in Indiana, and one person died in Oklahoma. Yesterday, an EF-2 tornado hit St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. It tore off the roof of a house but didn’t hurt anyone.
The National Weather Service said that from the mid-Atlantic to parts of the Southeast, bad weather and heavy rain were still possible through Monday night.
In a statement, the Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Office in Michigan said that three family members were killed when a tree hit their car on Sunday. Three other family members were hurt and taken to the hospital. The statement said that one was in serious condition and the other two were stable.
There was a death in Ingham County on Sunday when a tree fell on a man’s house and killed him, according to the sheriff’s office.
One person died Sunday in Valparaiso, Indiana, when winds of up to 80 mph flipped over his lorry and trailer. This was confirmed by the Porter County Sheriff’s Office. The victim was named as Jagbir Singh, who was 34 years old. Strong winds were said to have knocked down or toppled many trees.
Local officials told NBC station KJRH of Tulsa that a man was killed when a tree fell on his camper just before 2 a.m. Sunday in Cherokee County, Oklahoma.
An early report from the northern Indiana weather service office said that high winds caused an Amish buggy to flip over in Millersburg, Indiana, killing one person. NBC News called the police, but didn’t get confirmation of the story until early Monday morning.
Even though no one died overnight, the city of Elkhart, Indiana, said that there was a lot of damage, including a building that fell down. People were told by police not to leave their homes unless it was “absolutely necessary.”
People who are under a tornado watch were told by the weather service to find the closest cover right away. On Sunday, a person in Vancleave, Mississippi, put online a video of a huge funnel cloud. In Doniphan, Missouri, another possible tornado was seen against a background of dark, ominous clouds.
Power lines were down all along the Great Lakes, from Michigan to Wisconsin, because of freezing rain and strong winds. The bad weather is moving south and could hit Tennessee, according to weather forecasters.
Around 300,000 people in Michigan didn’t have power on Monday morning, and more than 50,000 people in Wisconsin and Indiana also didn’t have power.
By 6 p.m. Monday, that number had gone down a bit, to 269,736 people in Michigan who were still without power, according to the website poweroutage.us.
On Monday, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced a state of emergency in 10 counties. This means that the state can help.
“This is something we will get through together,” she said.
The Gaylord, Michigan, weather service office put up pictures that showed almost an inch of ice had formed there.
Fox told The Associated Press that she and her husband drove from Alpena, Michigan, for more than 40 minutes to get petrol for a generator that had lost power Saturday night.
“We went by a veterinary clinic just now.” “A tree took out the whole front corner of the building,” Fox, 36, said.
The weather service said that in the next two days, a strong Pacific coastal weather system will bring heavy rain and winds of up to 70 mph to Northern California and southern Oregon. Around 2 to 4 feet of snow is expected in the mountains. Up to 12 inches of snow could fall in the Great Basin and the northern and central Rockies.
There will still be unstable weather on Tuesday as this weather system moves east into the Plains and the Mississippi Valley.
