Thousands remained without electrical power Sunday morning after weekend storms ravaged parts of the Southeast and Midwest, causing 11 deaths, overturning cars, uprooting trees and reducing buildings to rubble.
The National Weather Service says it was a tornado packing winds of at least 134 mph that hit Alabama’s Pickens County on Saturday, killing three. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey praised the state’s first responders Sunday in a statement expressing grief over the loss of life.
“This morning, I have reached out to both the county leadership as well as the legislative delegation to offer my deepest condolences in this terrible loss of life,” Ivey’s statement said.
Severe thunderstorms, including tornadoes, remain possible through tonight over portions of the South and northward into parts of the Ohio Valley and Mid Atlantic. pic.twitter.com/bb3rP3wy7H
— National Weather Service (@NWS) January 11, 2020
In northwestern Louisiana, three deaths were blamed on destructive wind. A man in his bed in Oil City, La., was crushed to death by a tree that fell on his home early Saturday. A couple in nearby Bossier Parish were killed when the storms demolished their mobile home. The National Weather Service said a tornado with 135 mph wind hit the area.
Icy road conditions were blamed for Saturday deaths in Lubbock, Texas, where two first responders were killed when they were hit by a vehicle at the scene of a traffic accident; and in Iowa, where a semitrailer on Interstate 80 overturned, killing a passenger.
39-year-old Lieutenant/Paramedic Eric Hill served with Lubbock Fire Rescue for ten years. Eric had promoted to lieutenant in July 2019 and was stationed at Fire Station 10B. pic.twitter.com/REyehcxqBe
— Lubbock Police Dept. (@LubbockPolice) January 11, 2020
Near Kiowa, Okla., a man drowned after he was swept away by floodwaters, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said.
Strong wind and icy weather were factors in power outages affecting tens of thousands of people in the South and the Northeast. The PowerOutage.US website, which tracks outages, reported more than 40,000 outages in New York. More than 28,000 were without power in the Carolinas on Sunday morning.
Calmer weather has returned to the South after severe storms ripped through the region Friday into Saturday, killing 8 people and leaving hundreds of thousands without power: https://t.co/A024B3YZAG pic.twitter.com/qtyM8uQRcN
— The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) January 12, 2020
Entergy Corporation, said its subsidiaries serving Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi had more than 30,000 customers without power Sunday morning, most in Mississippi and Arkansas. That was down from a peak of 134,000 outages in the entire Entergy system. While most were expected to be restored later in the day, some in areas of Arkansas and Mississippi with extensive damage might take longer, said spokeswoman Lee Sabatini.
“They have had extensive infrastructure damage,” Sabatini said of the two states.
The storm-ravaged southern United States will face daily rounds of showers and thunderstorms into the middle of the week: https://t.co/NzOjnnyCUL pic.twitter.com/mflKYj6Tj0
— AccuWeather (@breakingweather) January 13, 2020
