2 dead after massive severe weather outbreak in eastern US
Widespread damaging winds and several tornadoes left large swaths of damage from Alabama to New York and Massachusetts early this week.
Officials say they worked as fast as they could to de-energize power lines that fell onto dozens of cars during severe storms in Maryland on Aug. 7.
At least 10 tornadoes have been confirmed after the worst severe weather outbreak since March erupted over the eastern United States from Monday into Tuesday. A deadly barrage of thunderstorms blasted towns from Massachusetts to Alabama with near-hurricane-force wind gusts, large hail and flash flooding in addition to the twisters that touched down.
A 15-year-old boy was struck and killed by a fallen tree as he was getting out of a car at his grandparents’ house in Anderson, South Carolina, The Associated Press reported. The boy was identified as Evan Christopher Kinley, according to CNN.
The Florence, Alabama, Police Department confirmed Monday evening that a lightning strike at Florence Industrial Park killed a 28-year-old man. At least three people were injured by falling trees in Westminster, Maryland, and Shrewsbury, Pennsylvania.
The National Weather Service (NWS) confirmed that several tornadoes struck as severe weather rampaged across the East. The strongest twister was rated an EF3 and it carved a 16-mile path from Lewis, New York, to Turin, New York. Another tornado, an EF1, was on the ground for 11 miles from Hartford, New York, to near McGraw, New York.
Motorists stop to remove a fallen tree from the roadway following a severe thunderstorm on August 7, 2023 in Myersville, Md. (Photo by Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The second-strongest preliminary rating so far from NWS survey crews was an EF2 tornado that struck Knox County, Tennessee, Monday.
Two tornadoes hit in Massachusetts, including an EF1 in Plymouth County and an EF0 in Barnstable County, as severe weather and torrential downpours swept across New England Tuesday.
Power outages surpassed 1 million Monday evening with electric customers from New York through Georgia affected, according to PowerOutage.us. More than 75,000 were still without power Wednesday morning due to the storms, with more than half of the outages being reported in Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Travel disruptions surged as the worst of the storms hit major East Coast cities around the same time as the Monday evening commute. More than 1,700 flights within, into or out of the U.S. were canceled Monday, and more than 8,900 arriving and departing flights in the U.S. were delayed, according to FlightAware. At one point Monday evening, ground stops were in effect simultaneously for airports in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Baltimore and the New York City area, according to CNN.
Charles Serio was among dozens of people trapped in vehicles for five and a half hours after power lines toppled down on Route 140 in Westminster, Maryland, Monday afternoon.
"It was kinda scary,” Serio told AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell. "We were sitting at a red light, and I thought we were gonna beat the storms ... the next thing you know the rain started coming down in buckets.” He went on to describe how the poles started swaying back and forth and then toppled over.
Charles Serio was on his way home from his cousin's house when power lines toppled onto Route 140 in Westminster, Maryland, on Monday afternoon, trapping him and other motorists for hours. (AccuWeather / Bill Wadell)
“All of a sudden we heard a ‘boom, boom, boom, boom, boom’ behind us,” Serio continued, noting that was likely transformers blowing. As that happened, sparks started flying.
Over 500 reports of wind damage were filed by NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center (SPC) between noon and 2 a.m. Tuesday morning EDT. The total number of storm reports listed by the SPC Monday ranked as the second-highest day so far this year, falling only behind March 31 when the tally was 704 severe weather reports.
A likely tornado was spotted in Dryden, New York, located 40 miles southwest of Syracuse, New York.
The storms spawned dangerous winds southward into northern parts of Georgia and Alabama as they ignited along a cold front draped across the area. A weather station northeast of Atlanta at DeKalb-Peachtree Airport reported a wind gust of 71 mph at 4:50 p.m. EDT on Aug. 7, 2023.
Videos and photos of thunderstorm wind damage emerged on social media Monday, including intense winds filmed in Cullman, Alabama. Between torrential rain and strong winds, the storm reduced the visibility to near zero.
Some of the strongest storms Monday also produced large hail. Golf ball-sized hail was reported in Earlysville, Virginia, and Funkstown, Maryland. The largest hailstone of the day was measured near Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia, located 60 miles south of Washington, D.C. Shortly after a storm passed over the area, a hailstone 4.75 inches across was recorded, according to the SPC.
Storm clouds darken the sky over the Washington Monument, Monday, Aug. 7, 2023, in Washington. Thousands of federal employees were sent home early Monday as the Washington area faced a looming forecast for destructively strong storms, including tornadoes, hail and lightning. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Even outside of severe weather, frequent lightning strikes were creating dangers across the East. In North Carolina, a person was injured after being struck by lightning in Vale, about 30 miles northwest of Charlotte. Over 100,000 lightning events were detected across the eastern U.S. as the severe weather blitzed the region, according to AccuWeather's database.
As stormy conditions swept across New England Tuesday, flash flooding was the primary threat. Streets were turned into rivers as floodwaters swept across parts of Boston.
The Boston National Weather Service office confirmed a tornado touched down in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, around 11:20 a.m. ET Tuesday. Survey crews later determined the twister was an EF1 tornado, with estimated winds up to 95 mph.
Severe thunderstorms will continue to rumble across the central and eastern U.S. this week.
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