Two people died in Washington and Mississippi, and hundreds of thousands are without power nationwide as severe weather wreaks havoc across the country.
Snohomish Regional Fire & Rescue said the person was killed in the city of Monroe, northeast of Seattle, when a tree fell on their vehicle. “Unfortunately, this incident proved fatal for the sole occupant of the vehicle,” the fire service said on Facebook.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency reported one death and three injuries in Lawrence County, as well as damage to homes from the storm.
The severe West Coast weather comes as many parts of the country were hit by storms, including at least 27 tornadoes in the Midwest alone, in the past 48 hours. An elderly couple from Lake Village, Indiana, died Tuesday night and many other people were hospitalized as a result of tornadoes and a powerful, long-lasting thunderstorm that lasted more than seven hours.
The Newton County Coroner’s Office confirmed that Edward L. Kozlowski, 89, and his wife, Arlene Kozlowski, 84, died when a tornado struck their home.
The National Weather Service office in Chicago preliminarily confirmed two tornadoes touched down in Illinois and Indiana on Tuesday, one of them rated EF-3 on the enhanced six-step Fujita scale, meaning it had sustained wind speeds of 136 to 165 mph.
Hundreds of homes were damaged in Indiana, authorities said, and dozens of them were completely destroyed. The NWS said hail up to 6 inches wide was found in Illinois.
David Ferris of Lake Village said he, his wife and their dogs “rode in our bathtub downstairs.” They emerged unscathed, except for losing power. Ferris, who is a paramedic, helped rescue and treat the injured.
“We had another house that a man crawled out of,” Ferris said. “He had trouble breathing because he was covered by the insulation of the house.”
Ferris said a Family Dollar store and a gas station were destroyed and several large trees were uprooted.
Newlywed Cassidy Sinwelski, 23, said she and her husband were aware of the tornado watch in their Lake Village neighborhood and were expecting a regular storm until her husband saw dark clouds approaching them.
“We went to the bathroom, grabbed a piece of plywood and within minutes I closed my eyes, the lights flickered and there was just… nothing,” Sinwelski said.
Volatile weather is expected to continue Thursday, with widespread showers and thunderstorms from the Mid-Atlantic to the Southeast coast. Storms could be severe in Georgia, South Carolina and northern Florida.
Across the Southeast, a tornado watch is in effect until 1 p.m. ET for eastern Georgia, much of South Carolina, and the Florida Panhandle. Thunderstorms with high winds and one or two tornadoes are possible into the early afternoon until the storms move away from the Atlantic coast.
And about 80 million people in the northern tier of the country, from Cleveland, Ohio, to Washington state, are under some type of high wind warning, with winds expected to reach 60 mph in some areas.
The northeast will be affected by gusty winds and rain during the morning rush hour and during the day.
Looking ahead, a clipper system is moving south from Canada and is set to bring snow to North Dakota, northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, with winter weather advisories in effect as far as New England.
Northern cities, including Duluth, Minnesota, and Marquette, Michigan, could experience 6 to 9 inches of snow, with locally higher amounts of up to 12 inches.
