3 are killed in Texas tornado and storms in Mississippi
A line of storms related to a severe weather system was marching across the Southeastern United States on Sunday, a day after a tornado and storms killed three people in Texas and Mississippi.
Heavy rain and severe thunderstorms capable of producing tornadoes, damaging wind and hail were possible from the eastern Gulf Coast northward into the Carolinas on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center.
Storms producing tornadoes are rarely seen in the Southeast this time of year, Christopher Rainer, a meteorologist with the Weather Center in Jackson, Mississippi, said on Sunday.
“We don’t get many of these type of outbreaks, at least here in the Southeast, at least not around the month of December,” Rainer said.
Rainer said that parts of North Carolina were under a severe thunderstorm watch on Sunday afternoon, and that tornado watches were in effect for portions of northern Florida and southern South Carolina.
He added that the impact from the weather system on Sunday would likely be less severe than the damage on Saturday because the system had weakened overnight.
The forecast came after three people were killed and several others were injured when a tornado touched down in southeastern Texas and severe storms struck Mississippi on Saturday, authorities said.
A tornado touched down multiple times early Saturday afternoon in Brazoria County, Texas, about 30 miles south of Houston, said Madison Polston, a spokesperson for the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office. More than a dozen homes, several businesses and an elementary school were damaged, she added.
The body of a 48-year-old woman was found about 100 feet from her home in Liverpool, Texas, on Saturday. Preliminary reports indicated that her death was related to the storm, Madison said.
The injured were all in noncritical condition on Sunday and no additional injuries were expected.
“We rarely get tornadoes here in Brazoria County,” Polston said Saturday. “If we do, for there to be damage to this extent, or injuries, is also very uncommon.”
Later Saturday, two people were killed and two others were injured in Adams County, in southwestern Mississippi, Gov. Tate Reeves said in a statement. Six injuries were reported in Franklin, Simpson and Wayne counties, he said.
Early preliminary reports show that there were at least five tornadoes in Mississippi on Saturday, and teams were surveying damaged areas to investigate, according to Logan Poole, a meteorologist in the Weather Center’s Jackson office.
“That number is almost certain to grow,” he said.
About 51,000 customers were without power Sunday afternoon in the state, according to PowerOutage.us, which aggregates data from utilities across the country.
The damage came as the National Weather Service issued a series of tornado warnings across the South on Saturday, including in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
In Texas, there were reports of heavy structural damage from a possible tornado in Montgomery County, north of Houston, according to the Montgomery County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Damage from a possible tornado at the East County Fire Department in Montgomery County resulted in minor injuries, according to the service.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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