(ABC) — At least three tornadoes hit Mississippi overnight with at least 17 injuries reported, officials said.

Some of the hardest hit population centers in Mississippi are Purvis and Brookhaven, as well as a mobile home park in Bogue Chitto, authorities said, as baseball-sized hail was also reported in parts of the state as well as Alabama.

Meanwhile, flooding was also reported in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama — especially in and around Montgomery, Alabama — where the state capitol building was evacuated during a special session debate on redistricting.

On Thursday morning, a tornado watch is in effect until 10 a.m. ET for the Florida panhandle and southwest Georgia.

Mississippi has seen 62 tornadoes so far this year before Wednesday, all of them EF0 or EF1 strength. Last night’s tornadoes were much stronger, making them the strongest in the state so far in 2026.

As a cold front slowly sinks into the region, there is a chance that some storms could produce more damaging wind and tornadoes on Thursday.

Over the next four days until Sunday, widespread rounds of rain are expected to bring 1 to 4 inches throughout the South which is dealing with a serious drought.

The National Weather Service Office in Jackson, Mississippi, will be conducting surveys on Thursday to confirm tornadoes and strengths along a major tornado path in Franklin, Lincoln and Lawrence counties as well as from Purvis to south of Hattiesburg, where there are several damage reports, and southeast of Prentiss where there was another reported tornado.

(AP) — A trail of damaged homes and buildings dotted a wide swath of the U.S. on Saturday after a burst of destructive winds and reported tornadoes tore off roofs, uprooted trees and rendered rural roads impassable with debris.

No deaths were reported following Friday’s storms that barreled through the Upper Midwest and delivered the latest round of severe weather to batter the region. Officials braced residents for a long recovery in some rural communities.

“We are extremely fortunate that this storm did not result in loss of life or serious injury,” Stephenson County Sheriff Steve Stovall said of the storm that hit Lena, Illinois, on Friday.

Officials in Wisconsin and Minnesota echoed those sentiments.

In central Wisconsin, a reported tornado that tore through the cities of Kronenwetter and Ringle left behind damaged homes and some residents briefly trapped in their basements, Ringle Fire Chief Chris Kielman told reporters.

Marathon County Sheriff Chad Billeb said he had not seen this much devastation during his 34 years in law enforcement.

“A lot of people are going to need a lot of help,” Billeb said of the Wisconsin storms.

In Olmsted County, Minnesota, sheriff’s officials said tornadoes caused “multiple levels” of damage. At least 30 homes were damaged in Marion Township, with a number of those sustaining damage that was described as significant. Officials went door to door in the community to check on residents.

The National Weather Service said the damage was likely caused by tornadoes and that surveys of the affected areas would be conducted over the weekend.

In Illinois, Leo Zach, 14, had just gotten to the high school band room for a music competition when the building started shaking and the power went out. He said the room was packed with students and some were very scared and had panic attacks.

“I’m definitely on the luckier side of how that could’ve happened,” he said. “I was just trying to stay calm, help other people.”

When they got outside, they found some of the windows blown out in the gym and part of the school’s roof ripped off.

Photos and video posted online showed a garage totaled, bricks torn off of buildings and fences demolished.

Lena is a village of nearly 3,000 people, located about 117 miles (188 kilometers) northwest of Chicago.

Rachel Nemon had been going to pick up her stepson from Lena’s middle school when she had to pull into a car wash to take cover from the storm. She watched a large tree get ripped from the ground and sparks fly feet in front of her.

“This is something that you see online, not in real life, especially in a small town in Illinois,” she said.

(CBS) — An elderly couple in Indiana was found dead after their home was destroyed as a string of tornadoes touched down in multiple states on Tuesday.

At least 17 tornadoes were reported in Indiana, Illinois, Texas and Alabama over the past 72 hours, according to data from NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center. There were also more than 300 damaging severe storm reports from the Southeast to Pennsylvania.

Lake Village, Indiana — a town of about 1,800 people in Newton County — was in the path of a “large tornado” Tuesday night, officials said. Two people died when their home was struck by a tornado, according to Liz Woods, deputy chief of staff at the Indiana Department of Homeland Security.

The National Weather Service reported Wednesday that the tornado responsible for the two deaths tore through northern Illinois and northern Indiana and had a preliminary rating of EF-3, with estimated peak winds of 150 mph. The Enhanced Fujita Scale classifies the strength of a tornado from EF-0, the weakest, to EF-5, the strongest.

The tornado was estimated to have traversed a distance of 36.6 miles on the ground over one hour and 21 minutes, starting in Kankakee County, Illinois — located south of Chicago — and ending its journey in Jasper County, Indiana.

Fierce winds pummel Indiana, destroy homes

The two people killed were tentatively identified as a couple in their 80s, Arlene and Edward Kozlowski, the Newton County Coroner’s Office said. An autopsy was scheduled for Friday.

Indiana State Police said officials located 10 people who were injured, though there were others who transported themselves to local hospitals. More than 100 structures were damaged and 32 were destroyed, but many homes that were damaged weren’t included in the figure, officials said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

“Considering the damage that we’ve seen, I am really surprised there aren’t a lot more injuries,” Lake Township Volunteer Fire Department spokesperson Lori Postma said during a news conference earlier Wednesday.

A secondary search and rescue effort will be conducted and the damaged scenes will also be double-checked, state police told reporters.

“There is a lot of devastation, there are complete annihilation of homes,” Postma said. She also said four homes belonging to firefighters were severely damaged.

Multiple suspected tornadoes were being investigated by the weather service.

Jennifer Telford, 49, told The Associated Press she hid in her basement in Lake Village, where she followed news reports of the storm. She said she didn’t hear the tornado that struck to the south, adding that not all warning sirens sounded.

LAKE CITY, Ark. (AP) — Parts of the Midwest and South faced the possibility of torrential rains and life-threatening flash floods Friday, while many communities were still reeling from tornadoes that destroyed whole neighborhoods and killed at least seven people.

Forecasters warned of catastrophic weather on the way, with round after round of heavy rains expected in the central U.S. through Saturday. Satellite imagery showed thunderstorms lined up like freight trains to take the same tracks over communities in Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky, according to the national Weather Prediction Center in Maryland.

The National Weather Service’s Oklahoma-based Storm Prediction Center warned of a moderate risk of severe thunderstorms Friday along a corridor from northeast Texas through Arkansas and into southeast Missouri. That area, which has a population of about 2.3 million, could see clusters of severe thunderstorms in the late afternoon and evening, with the potential for some storms to produce strong to intense tornadoes and very large hail.

Those killed in the initial wave of storms that spawned powerful tornadoes on Wednesday and early Thursday were in Tennessee, Missouri and Indiana. They included a Tennessee man and his teen daughter whose home was destroyed, and a man whose pickup struck downed power lines in Indiana. In Missouri, Garry Moore, who was chief of the Whitewater Fire Protection District, died while likely trying to help a stranded motorist, according to Highway Patrol spokesperson Sgt. Clark Parrott.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said entire neighborhoods in the hard-hit town of Selmer were “completely wiped out” and said it was too early to know whether there were more deaths as searches continued. He warned people across the state to stay vigilant with more severe weather predicted.

“Don’t let your guard down,” he said during a Thursday evening news conference. “Don’t stop watching the weather. Don’t stop preparing yourself. Have a plan.”

With flattened homes behind him, Dakota Woods described seeing the twister come through Selmer.

“I was walking down the street,” Woods said Thursday. “Next thing you know, I look up, the sky is getting black and blacker, and it’s lighting up green lights, and it’s making a formation of a twister or tornado.”

Flash flood threat looms over many states

By late Thursday, extremely heavy rain was falling in parts of southeastern Missouri and western Kentucky and causing “very dangerous/life threatening flash flooding” in some spots, according to the National Weather Service.

Heavy rains were expected to continue there and in other parts of the region in the coming days and could produce dangerous flash floods capable of sweeping away cars. The potent storm system will bring “significant, life-threatening flash flooding” each day, the National Weather Service said.

Water rescue teams and sandbagging operations were being staged across the region, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency was ready to distribute food, water, cots and generators.

Water rescues were already underway in flooded parts of Nashville, Tennessee, where the rain could persist for days after an unnerving period of tornado warnings that drained the batteries of some city sirens, the fire department said.

Western Kentucky prepared for record rain and flooding in places that normally do not get inundated, Gov. Andy Beshear said. At least 25 state highways were swamped, mostly in the west, according to a statement from his office Thursday.

Flash flooding is particularly worrisome in rural areas of the state where water can quickly rush off the mountains into the hollows. Less than four years ago, dozens died in flooding across eastern Kentucky.

Extreme flooding across the corridor that includes Louisville, Kentucky, and Memphis, which have major cargo hubs, could also lead to shipping and supply chain delays, said Jonathan Porter, chief meteorologist at AccuWeather.

Forecasters attributed the violent weather to warm temperatures, an unstable atmosphere, strong wind shear and abundant moisture streaming from the Gulf.

Tornadoes leave path of damage, and more could be coming

Under darkened skies Thursday morning, the remains of a used car dealership in Selmer stood roofless and gutted, with debris scattered across the car lot and wrapped around mangled trees. Some homes were ripped to their foundations in the Tennessee town, where three tornadoes were suspected of touching down.

The Tennessee Highway Patrol released video of lightning illuminating the sky as first responders scoured the ruins of a home, looking for anyone trapped.

In neighboring Arkansas, a tornado near Blytheville lofted debris at least 25,000 feet (7.6 kilometers) high, according to weather service meteorologist Chelly Amin. The state’s emergency management office reported damage in 22 counties from tornadoes, wind, hail and flash flooding.

The home where Danny Qualls spent his childhood but no longer lives was flattened by a tornado in northeast Arkansas.

“My husband has been extremely tearful and emotional, but he also knows that we have to do the work,” Rhonda Qualls said. “He was in shock last night, cried himself to sleep.”

Workers on bulldozers cleared rubble along the highway that crosses through Lake City, where a tornado with winds of 150 mph (241 kph) sheared roofs off homes, collapsed brick walls and tossed cars into trees.

Mississippi’s governor said at least 60 homes were damaged. And in far western Kentucky, four people were injured while taking shelter in a vehicle under a church carport, according to the emergency management office in Ballard County.

CHICAGO (AP) — Storms with reports of tornadoes blew through Iowa, Illinois and Indiana, including the Chicago area, toppling trees and power poles and cutting electricity to hundreds of thousands of people. A woman in Indiana died after a tree fell onto a home.

Employees at the National Weather Service in suburban Chicago had to take cover Monday night and pass coverage duties to colleagues in northern Michigan for a time. The agency reported wind speeds in the region as high as 75 mph.

“We have a fortified tornado shelter here, luckily, but we did see a pretty nice area of rotation that was heading for the office and then, sure enough, it passed just nearby,” meteorologist Kevin Doom told WLS-TV.

A 44-year-old woman died in Cedar Lake, Indiana, in the southern fringes of the Chicago area, the Lake County coroner’s office said.

There were some tornado reports, but other damaging winds were the main concern, said Roger Edwards, lead forecaster with the weather service’s Storm Prediction Center. There were wind gusts in the 75 mph to 90 mph range and a report of a 101 mph gust in Ogle County, Illinois, Edwards said.

The weather service confirmed a tornado hit Des Moines, Iowa, as storms rolled through Monday afternoon and into the night. Police responded to calls about utility poles that snapped in two.

The storms then moved east into northern Illinois and the Chicago area, which saw tornado warnings and drenching rain. Tornadoes were reported along the line of storms that moved through the city, according to the weather service.

By 8 a.m., 254,000 customers lacked power in Illinois, though the number was much higher hours earlier, according to PowerOutage.us.

The Chicago Fire Department said on the social media site X that there was only one serious injury in the nation’s third-largest city, a person who was hurt when a tree fell on a car.

In Joliet, Illinois, 35 miles southwest of Chicago, authorities said many roads were blocked by trees.

Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport reported 81 flight cancellations as of Tuesday morning, and Midway International Airport reported eight cancellations.

(AP) — Severe storms with probable tornadoes tore through several central U.S. states, damaging homes and businesses and killing at least three people, with more bodies likely to be discovered, authorities said. As the sun rose Friday, officials scrambled to assess the extent of the destruction with the power out.

The three deaths came in Logan County, Ohio, according to the sheriff’s office there. Thursday night’s storms also left trails of destruction in Kentucky, Indiana and Arkansas. Tornadoes were also suspected in Illinois and Missouri.

“3 people have been confirmed dead. We are working on identifying the victims,” said a statement from Chief Deputy Joe Kopus of the Logan County Sheriff’s Office.

There were “many, many significant injuries” after a suspected tornado in Winchester, Indiana, where search efforts were underway, officials said. There were no known fatalities as of Friday morning.

“I’m shaken; it’s overwhelming,” said Bob McCoy, mayor of the town of 4,700 about 70 miles (110 kilometers) northeast of Indianapolis. “I heard what sounded like a train, and then I started hearing sirens.”

He and his wife were hunkered in a closet during the twister, which hit around 8 p.m.

“I’ve never heard that sound before; I don’t want to hear it again,” McCoy said.

The Winchester storm damaged a Walmart store and a Taco Bell restaurant, Randolph County Sheriff Art Moystner told FOX59/CBS4. Travel throughout the county is restricted to emergency management workers, he said.

West of Winchester, emergency management officials said initial assessments suggested as many as half the structures in the town of Selma, population 750, were damaged by a possible tornado. Only minor injuries were reported, the Delaware County Emergency Management Agency said in a news release.

“Severe weather has impacted Hoosiers all across the state, and we have emergency response personnel in the impacted areas,” Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb posted on Facebook Thursday night.

The Winchester school district was closed Friday, according to a Facebook post. A high school in Winchester had electricity and was open for people who “need somewhere warm and dry.”

In Ohio’s Logan County, a suspected tornado tore through the villages of Lakeview and Russells Point, county spokesperson Sheri Timmers said. An RV park was damaged, Timmers said, and there were likely “lots of injuries.”

Amber Fagan, president and chief executive of the Indian Lake Area Chamber of Commerce, said the community of Lakeview was “completely demolished,” with homes, campgrounds and a laundromat hit by the tornado.

“There’s places burning,” she said. “There’s power lines through people’s windows.”

A shelter was opened for displaced people.

In Ohio’s Huron County, emergency officials posted on Facebook that there was a “confirmed large and extremely dangerous tornado” near Plymouth, some 75 miles (120 kilometers) northeast of Indian Lake.

Storms also damaged homes and trailers in the Ohio River communities of Hanover and Lamb in Indiana.

Sgt. Stephen Wheeles of the Indiana State Police earlier said another suspected tornado struck Jefferson County, on the Ohio River north of Louisville, Kentucky, damaging homes and downing trees and power lines.

He posted photos on X showing one home with its roof torn off and another missing roof shingles, as well as an image of a baseball-sized hailstone.

In Kentucky, Trimble County Emergency Management Director Andrew Stark told the Courier Journal of Louisville that the storms damaged at least 50 structures, including homes.

There was significant damage in the town of Milton, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said in a statement, with potentially over 100 structures damaged.

In Arkansas, a suspected tornado struck the retirement community of Hot Springs Village, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southwest of Little Rock, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Erik Green.

“It’s pretty clear cut that a tornado did hit Hot Springs Village,” Green said, and assessment teams will go to the area Friday to confirm the twister.

Baseball-sized hail also fell and some buildings were destroyed, but there were no reports of fatalities or injuries, Green said.

There were unconfirmed reports of tornadoes in Jefferson County, Missouri, and Monroe County, Illinois, but no immediate reports of damage. Large pieces of hail also was reported in parts of the St. Louis area Thursday afternoon.

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — It’s Severe Weather Preparedness Week in North Carolina.

As spring and severe weather season quickly approaches, the National Weather Service is highlighting a different topic each day through Saturday.

Sunday’s topic was an overview for the week.

Monday focuses on severe storms and tornadoes.

Tuesday highlights ways to receive severe weather alerts and information about the statewide tornado drill, which will take place on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m.

Wednesday will detail staying safe when high winds, hail and tornadoes strike.

Thursday is lightning safety, with Friday emphasizing flash flood safety.

The final day of Severe Weather Preparedness Week on Saturday focuses on making a plan and encouraging others to do the same.

Although severe weather isn’t as common in the Cape Fear as it is in other parts of the country, dangerous storms do happen.

From 1991 through 2021, there were 412 injuries and 35 deaths from severe weather events.

It’s important to make sure you’re prepared ahead of the approaching severe weather months.

For a more detailed look, click HERE.

The storm, which started Tuesday night and was moving out Wednesday, washed out roads and took down trees and power lines. Wind gusts reached 45 mph to 55 mph (72 kph to 88 kph) and more windy weather was expected throughout Wednesday.

It followed a day of tornadoes and deadly accidents in the South and blizzards in the Midwest and Northwest.

Here’s how various areas are being affected by the storms:

NEW JERSEY
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm. Many streets and roads wre flooded and rivers were rising after some areas got up to 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) of rain since Tuesday night.

Lou DeFazio, 65, of Manville, New Jersey, lives steps away from the Millstone River that flooded disastrously in 2021 after the remnants of Ida slammed into the state and swerved riverbanks. He said the river was expected to crest later Wednesday.

“It’s getting worse and worse,” he said.

Mark Nipps, a lifelong resident of Manville, New Jersey, who watched President Joe Biden’s visit to the town in 2021 after Ida wrecked dozens of homes left in large part because of the regular flooding.

“Mentally, every two years seeing your hometown devastated — that’s not good at all,” he said in a phone interview from his home outside Greenville, South Carolina.

Murphy said 56,000 homes were without power and several hundred accidents and highway assists were reported, but no storm deaths. The rain fell on ground saturated by another storm a few weeks ago. Another storm is forecast for the weekend.

Murphy said it’s easier to warn people if they’re going to get a foot of snow or a tornado than heavy rain or flooding.

“For whatever reason, people say, ‘You know what? I can deal with that,’ ” Murphy said in an interview with CBS New York. “And we saw in the storm Ida, people pay with their lives by driving their cars into a street they shouldn’t have, or staying in their home when they shouldn’t have.”

NEW YORK
Even before high tide Wednesday morning, parts of Long Island’s southern shore were already inundated by coastal flooding.

In Nassau County, video showed cars sloshing through water that had collected on the streets of Freeport. Further east, near the Hamptons, the National Weather Service reported major flooding out of Shinnecock Bay. Several schools across Long Island were either canceling or delaying classes as a result of the storm.

New York City officials evacuated nearly 2,000 migrants housed at a sprawling tent complex before the storm hit amid fears that the facility could collapse in heavy winds.

Photos showed the migrant families sleeping on the floor of a Brooklyn high school, whose students were forced to go remote on Wednesday as a result of the brief relocation. The migrants returned to the tent facility at around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday after the winds had subsided, officials said.

NEW ENGLAND
In Danbury, Connecticut, officials said the snow that melted in the overnight rain had overwhelmed the city’s drainage capacity, leaving a dozen intersections flooded. At least one motorist was rescued from a vehicle.

Fire officials in Bozrah, Connecticut, said no rescue efforts have been needed due to a reported break in the Fitchville Dam. Local and state authorities were monitoring the dam.

Norwich Public Utilities, a local electricity provider, said it had to take a power substation offline to avoid damage from flooding from the dam break. The company said about 5,000 homes and businesses were without power as a result.

The storm canceled numerous events and government functions in Maine, where some areas were still recovering from a major snowstorm over the weekend and flooding the previous month.

Powerful winds gusted to 95 mph (153 kph) at Maine’s Isle au Haut, an island in Penobscot Bay, and to 83 mph (134 kph) off the coast of Rye New, Hampshire, said Jon Palmer from the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine.

Tens of thousands of homes and businesses were in the dark, mostly in coastal areas that were lashed by wind and rain. Farther inland, heavy wet snow blanketed the region.

Flash flood warnings were issued. Maine Gov. Janet Mills encouraged residents to stay off the roads if they could.

“Please be sure to give plow trucks, utility crews, and emergency first responders plenty of space as they work to keep us safe,” she said.

In Vermont, the storm brought wind gusts of up to 70 miles per hour and heaving wet snow, followed by rain, leaving nearly 30,000 homes without power Wednesday morning. Many schools were closed or had delayed openings.

MIDWEST
Slushy highways led to the deaths of a driver in Wisconsin and another in Michigan following collisions.

The storm, which began Monday, buried cities across the Midwest in snow, stranding people on highways. Some areas saw up to a foot (30 centimeters) of snow on Monday, including Kansas, eastern Nebraska and South Dakota, western Iowa, and southwestern Minnesota.

Madison, Wisconsin, was under a winter storm warning until early Wednesday, with as much as 9 inches (23 centimeters) of snow and 40 mph (64 kph) winds on tap.

The weather has already affected campaigning for Iowa’s Jan. 15 precinct caucuses, where the snow is expected to be followed by frigid temperatures that could drift below zero degrees (minus 18 Celsius).

Forecasters warned snow-struck regions of the Midwest and the Great Plains that temperatures could plunge dangerously low because of wind chill, dipping to around minus 20 (29 Celsius) and even far lower in Chicago, Kansas City and some areas of Montana.

SOUTH
Several deaths have been blamed on storms that struck the area with heavy rain, tornado reports, hail and wind.

An 81-year-old woman in Alabama was killed when her mobile home was tossed from its foundation by a suspected tornado. Another person died in North Carolina after a suspected tornado struck a mobile home park. A man died south of Atlanta when a tree fell on his car.

The National Weather Service office in Tallahassee, Florida, planned to send out three tornado survey teams on Wednesday to examine suspected tornado damage in Walton, Bay and Jackson counties in Florida, and two more on Thursday to look at Houston County, Alabama, and Calhoun County, Georgia.

Roofs were blown off homes, furniture, fences and debris were strewn about during the height of the storm in the South.

Many areas of Florida remained under flood watches, warnings and advisories early Wednesday amid concerns that streams and rivers were topping their banks. Gov. Ron DeSantis, who gave his State of the State address Tuesday as tornado warnings were active outside the Capitol, issued an executive order to include 49 counties in North Florida under a state of emergency.

PACIFIC NORTHWEST
A blizzard pounded Washington and Oregon mountains on Tuesday, knocking out power and prompting the closure of highways and ski resorts.

At one point, some 150,000 customers in those states were without electricity, although that was down to under 20,000 by Wednesday morning.