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At least two dead, thousands without power after storms hit Southeast


Residents in the Southeast, from Texas to South Carolina, continued to clean up and asses damage after deadly storms hit the area. As of Wednesday morning, the death toll from Tuesday’s storms sat at two. 71-year-old W.M. Solomon died when storm winds knocked a tree onto his east Texas home.

“Great guy. He was a cowboy and anytime you needed help he would help you,” Gary Richey, Solomon’s neighbor, said Tuesday. “He was the best neighbor you could ask for. We’ll miss him.”

The other reported death was a woman in Bryan County, Georgia, just west of Savannah. She was found amid the shredded wreckage of her mobile home.

“It was just completely ripped to pieces,” Bryan County Coroner Bill Cox said Wednesday. “It’s like it exploded.” The woman’s husband was taken to the hospital with injuries.

According to PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages nationwide, Texas and Georgia have experienced over 11,000 power outages as of noon EST Wednesday.

“There was a power line laying across the road and they said there was a tornado that touched down in this path,” Early County, Georgia resident Julie Trawick said Tuesday.

Tornadoes were also reported in South Carolina, and officials in Alabama said they were sending survey teams to examine potential tornado damage. Meanwhile In Mississippi, fallen trees and limbs closed a stretch of highway for hours in Newton County.

Residents in the Southeast are not out of the woods for more storms yet. The national Storm Prediction Center said several more tornadoes are expected across a large part of the South on Wednesday. Parts of Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee will be at greatest risk of severe weather. That area of heightened risk includes several large cities, including Atlanta; Birmingham, Alabama; and Knoxville, Tennessee.

Shannon Longworth: Those in the Southeast are *still* dealing with the after-effects of severe storms that hit from Texas to South Carolina Tuesday.
The most damage is in Texas and Georgia.
More than 12-thousand people in the two states remain without electricity as of this morning, according Power Outage dot U-S — which tracks outages nationwide.
Julie Trawick | Early County, Georgia resident: “There was a power line laying across the road and they said there was a tornado that touched down in this path. And the top of a pine tree fell into the front part of my parents’ house and there’s a hole in the front and both of the upper bedrooms in the front, they’ve got water in them. It’s overwhelming, this can be fixed, everybody’s safe, nobody got hurt, and I’m very blessed about that.”
Shannon Longworth: Not everyone was so lucky.
One woman died in Bryant County, Georgia Tuesday night…that’s just west of Savannah.
There’s been a curfew in effect there to prevent trespassing into tornado-damaged areas.
Meanwhile over in East Texas — a 71-year-old man died when storm winds knocked a tree onto his home.
Gary Richey | Whitehouse, Texas Resident: “Great guy. He was a cowboy and anytime you needed help he would help you. He was the best neighbor you could ask for. We’ll miss him.”
Shannon Longworth: The Southeast isn’t out of the woods just yet, though — more tornadoes expected *are* Wednesday.
Parts of Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee are at the most risk for severe weather.