More than 50 million people across a large swath of the US are under a severe weather threat Friday, one day after storms cut a deadly path across Texas and Florida.
Three people were killed in Perryton, Texas, when a ruinous tornado slammed the town Thursday, the fir team told, The storm also sent up to 100 people in the Texas Panhandle town to the hospital with injuries ranging from head wounds to abrasions.
And a person in Florida died after being trapped under a tree that fell on their home, Escambia County officials said.
The county, which includes Pensacola, was hit with flash flooding emergencies overnight, leading to high water rescues, the National Weather Service in Mobile, Alabama, reported early Friday, citing local rescuers.
“Widespread and significant” flash flooding was continuing in West Pensacola, Warrington and Gulf Breeze, Escambia County Emergency Management said. “Numerous roadways remain flooded with water entering several structures,” emergency officials said.
Nearly 150 residents of an apartment complex in Pensacola were moved amid the rising water Friday morning and taken to a community center for shelter, county officials said.
Warrington, just south of Pensacola, got nearly a foot of rain in just three hours. Radar estimates indicate as much as 16 inches of rain fell overnight, and more is expected Friday. A flash flood watch is in effect for the area until 7 p.m.
Many of the areas that saw severe conditions Thursday could see storms return as a level 2 of 5 slight risk of severe storms is in place for parts of the South, Mid-Atlantic and Southern Plains.
Large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes are possible in the slight risk areas, which include Montgomery and Mobile in Alabama, Little Rock, Arkansas; Jackson, Mississippi; and Tallahassee, Florida.
A marginal, level 1 of 5 risk is in place from South Dakota to Florida and for parts of the Mid-Atlantic – a huge zone that includes hard-hit Perryton. Other cities in the marginal risk area, which could see large hail and damaging winds, include Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, DC, Denver, and Jacksonville, Florida.
The storm that swept through Perryton damaged homes and businesses in the town of some 8,000 residents, including the local fire department and EMS, as well as multiple mobile homes, Fire Chief Paul Dutcher said, noting many of the department’s trucks were damaged
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