Weekly wrap-up: Deadly severe storms slam southern US; Flooding forces entire New Zealand town to evacuate
Severe storms plagued the central and southern United States this week, spawning tornadoes, flooding and large hail.
A chain of severe storms swept through the Southeast and up the East Coast on Wednesday. At least 10 tornadoes were reported in Georgia, South Carolina and Indiana. Two people were reported injured near McMinnville, Tennessee. Law enforcement reported that in both cases, a mobile home was destroyed, possibly by tornadoes.
Last weekend, violent storms swept from Texas into the Mississippi Valley, killing four. In Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, one storm produced a tornado that flipped a mobile home, killing a mother and her 3-year-old daughter on Sunday, April 2. The tornado was classified as an EF1 with peak winds at 110 mph, and it traveled for nearly a mile.
Two others were killed in Mississippi, the Associated Press reported. A 52-year-old woman died in Florence, Mississippi, after her car was submerged in floodwaters. Another woman died in the town of Glendora after a large tree fell onto her home.
Stormy conditions disrupted activities at the Masters in Augusta, Georgia, this week. Play was suspended multiple times on Wednesday, and the popular Par 3 Contest was canceled. It was the first time in the 56-year history of the event that it was canceled, according to the Golf Channel.
Remnants of Tropical Cyclone Debbie forced an entire New Zealand town to evacuate this week.
This photo shows the flooded streets of the North Island town of Edgecumbe in New Zealand, Thursday, April 6, 2017. (Andrew Warner/The Bay of Plenty Times via AP)
Roughly 2,000 people were transported out of Edgecumbe, a town on New Zealand's North Island. The town's mayor said the situation was a once-in-500-years event, the BBC reported.
Heavy rain and snow resulted in flooding in Kashmir, India, this week. Local schools were closed and streams and rivers swelled.
A Kashmiri man rides a motorbike through a waterlogged street in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Thursday, April 6, 2017. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)
Mocoa, Colombia, continues to deal with the aftermath of catastrophic flooding that led to deadly mudslides. At least 300 people were killed in the southwestern town, authorities said, according to Al Jazeera.
There are "hundreds of families we have not yet found and whole neighborhoods have disappeared," Governor Sorrel Aroca of the Putumayo department told W radio.
Mocoa is in an area vulnerable to flooding as three rivers flow through the basin with mountainous terrain on several sides of the town.
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