Heavy storms sweeping Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic after blasting South

A potent storm system that triggered deadly severe weather from Texas to the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday is sweeping toward the East Coast late Thursday, bringing another round of powerful storms.

Wednesday’s storms left a trail of damage and were blamed for at least one death. The National Weather Service received more than 200 reports of severe weather between Tuesday night and Thursday morning, including about 10 tornadoes. Damaging tornadoes hit Katy, Tex., west of Houston; Lake Charles and Slidell in Louisiana; and near Mobile, Ala.

With the system on the move northeastward Thursday evening, the risk was shifting toward the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic, where storms could produce damaging winds, scattered instances of hail and flooding. The Weather Service Storm Prediction Center said the greatest potential for tornadoes was in southeastern Ohio and western West Virginia. It issued a tornado watch until 9 p.m. Eastern time for eastern Kentucky, southeastern Ohio, southwestern Pennsylvania, far western Virginia and West Virginia. A second tornado watch was issued until 11 p.m. for western North Carolina and south central Virginia.

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The Weather Service reported a damaging tornado hit near Ronda, N.C. — about 70 miles north of Charlotte, just before 7:15 p.m.

To the north, repeated heavy thunderstorms passing over western Pennsylvania triggered a flash flood emergency — the most severe flood alert — until midnight on the west side of Pittsburgh, where there were reports of water rescues and flooded homes and vehicles. “This is a PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION,” the Weather Service wrote. “SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW!”

Flash flood warnings covered much of southwestern Pennsylvania and western West Virginia on Thursday evening where 1 to 4 inches of rain had fallen and another 1 to 3 inches was possible.

Heavy storms also swept over the Florida Peninsula on Thursday but had mostly moved offshore by evening. Early Thursday afternoon, a large tornado struck near St. Augustine, causing damage at the World Golf Village.

Showers and storms, some potentially severe, are forecast to continue through the evening progressing from the Appalachians toward the East Coast. However, because the heaviest storms will be coming through at night near the Interstate 95 corridor, they won’t have as much heat to draw from, so severe weather is predicted to be more limited.

What’s next?

The jet stream dip responsible for the storm will only slowly progress through the Northeast into the weekend. Parts of New England might stay under its influence through Sunday.

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As the storm wraps up, it will generate strong winds from the northwest in both the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, with widespread gusts of 35 to 45 mph, and locally stronger gusts in the mountains and near the coast.

More showers and some gusty storms could develop Friday and Saturday, focused in the Mid-Atlantic and then farther northeast.

By early next week, the storm will have exited. However, a new disturbance moving into the West Coast is likely to spark a significant severe weather outbreak in the central states Monday and Tuesday.

Storms’ impacts Wednesday

The damaging storms that began to erupt late Tuesday developed from a well-defined zone of low pressure near the Gulf Coast. Storms consolidated into a violent squall line that traveled more than 650 miles from East Texas into Florida.

The squall line caused numerous instances of damaging winds from southeastern Texas through the Florida Panhandle, with multiple peak gusts of at least 70 to 80 mph.

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High winds from the storms cut power to over 250,000 customers across the South on Wednesday, with the greatest number in Louisiana.

The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said it received preliminary reports of one person killed in Scott County and one injured in Grenada County, as well as 72 homes damaged across the state. Scott County Sheriff Mike Lee told the Associated Press that a 64-year-old woman died after her electric oxygen machine shut down when her home lost power because of the storm.

The storms also triggered over 120 flash flood warnings and about as many flood reports, including in New Orleans, Mobile and Tallahassee.

Rainfall totals of at least 2 to 4 inches were widespread, with isolated totals over 10 inches.

Flash flood emergencies were issued near the Texas-Louisiana border as well as in New Orleans and Tallahassee. New Orleans had its third-wettest April day on record with over 6 inches of rain, while more than 7 inches had fallen in Tallahassee since Wednesday night.

High water inundated roads and underpasses, leading to stranded cars and rescues in multiple locations.

Mobile Bay on the Alabama coast endured a significant water rise that topped roadways and stranded vehicles, along both the U.S. 90 Causeway and Interstate 10, as strong winds from the south piled water over the shore ahead of the squall line.

Annabelle Timsit contributed to this report.

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