Damaging tornadoes continue to devastate the southern US

The same storm system responsible for the deaths of at least seven people earlier this week continued its rampage through the Southeast on Thursday.

One of the strongest storms of the day tracked across southern Georgia early Thursday afternoon, producing several tornadoes as it raced across the state.

There was a string of tornado warnings issued over a 200-mile stretch of southern Georgia with the storm first beginning to rotate just north of Bainbridge, tracking east through Adel and Waycross before eventually reaching the coast near the town of Brunswick.

There were at least five tornado reports along its path, according to the Storm Prediction Center. Hailstones as large as golf balls were also reported along the storm's path.

The Okaloosa Sheriff's office in Florida spotted a tornado around 3 p.m. CST Thursday, April 23, 2020. There were reports of tree damage, but no immediate reports on injuries. (Twitter/@OCSOALERTS)

At least 20 homes in Pike County, Mississippi, were damaged Thursday morning by a possible tornado, emergency officials told 16 WAPT News. Nearby in Brookhaven, Lincoln County, Elizabeth Jackson told the news station she had to crawl out of her room amid storm damage to reach her three children. The family crawled out the back door at 3 a.m., the front of their home too damaged to safely escape via that route.

"I could hear stuff hitting the window at first and then all of a sudden, like I said I just heard the crashing sound and looked up and the ceiling was just, like coming down on me," Jackson told WAPT. There were no injuries reported in the county from the storms.

Stacy Brightwell wasn't home when the winds began to pick up in Moultrie, Georgia, but her daughter and nephew were, she told WALB News 10.

"I called them, it was about 12:30 and I told them, ‘Get in the closet, get in the closet now,'" she told the news station. Brightwell's daughter and nephew ducked into the closet, putting an air mattress over the two of them as they rode out the storm. For over half of an hour, they listened to debris pelting against the roof. When they emerged, the window panes were broken, trees were downed, the attic had been damaged and their roof was leaking," Brightwell said.

The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center listed three preliminary tornado reports in Colquitt County, Georgia, the same county where Moultrie is located. Damage consisted mostly of downed trees and power lines, though photos taken across Georgia show metal panels stripped from buildings and even a few overturned cars.

The Okaloosa Sheriff's office in Florida spotted a NWS-confirmed tornado around 3 p.m. CDT. There were no injuries immediately reported, but there were reports of multiple trees downed.

Earlier Thursday morning in Anniston, Alabama, a large tree limb fell on top of two emergency responders as they were aiding a resident who was trapped in their own home, according to a Facebook post by the Anniston EMS. The AEMS transported a member of the Anniston Fire Department, one Anniston citizen and one of their own members to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Over 100,000 were left in the dark as the storms contributed to power outages from Louisiana to South Carolina, according to PowerOutage.us. This likely caused some issues for people across the region that are now telecommuting for work due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A deluge of rainfall flooded downtown Charleston, South Carolina, by Thursday evening, breaking a daily rainfall record. About 3.27 inches of rain had fallen over the downtown area since midnight, breaking the previous record of 2.22 inches set in 2018.

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The southeastern U.S. will not have much time to recover before the next severe weather event, which is forecast to unfold over the region on Saturday. All modes of severe weather will be possible, including damaging wind gusts, large hail and tornadoes.

This will be followed by the chance for more severe storms next week.

"At this early stage, it looks like the greatest threat of severe weather during the middle of next week will extend from the middle Mississippi Valley to the Tennessee Valley," AccuWeather Lead Long-Range Meteorologist Paul Pastelok stated.

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