A major storm system that killed six people in Tennessee is now carving a path to the East Coast.
Heavy rainfall, strong winds and snow are set to batter eastern US states throughout Monday as the deadly storm that ripped through Tennessee over the weekend moves through the East Coast.
Multiple tornadoes tore through Tennessee on Saturday, destroying homes, overturning trucks and uprooting trees, leaving an estimated 35,000 people without power and many families homeless.
While a warning for tornadoes and severe thunderstorms was in place for areas across the East Coast on Sunday, the warning has now been downgraded, with less than a ten per cent chance of thunderstorms, according to the Storm Prediction Center website.
However, the National Weather Service is now warning of floods in the Northeast of the country, particularly in New England, while rain changed to snow early on Monday morning as far south as Maryland and Virginia, including parts of Baltimore and Washington.
A half-inch to an inch of snowfall was recorded in the area near Dulles International Airport in Virginia. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport also received 0.1 inches of snow, marking Washington’s first measurable snow of the season.
National Weather Service forecast map for Monday— (National Weather Service)
Further north, the NWS in Burlington, Vermont, warned that gusty winds and heavy, wet snow could lead to scattered power outages during the day.
It comes after Clarksville Mayor Joe Pitts declared a state of emergency in Tennessee on Saturday.
Two children were among the six people killed as two dozen tornadoes ravaged portions of Tennessee and Kentucky on Saturday. Dozens of homes and businesses were destroyed, leaving thousands without power.
Footage posted to social media showed a huge fireball erupting south of the city of Goodlettsville as a tornado swept through the area.
In the aftermath, rescue teams searched for survivors and surveyed damage on Sunday morning, the Nashville Office of Emergency Management said on X.
This aerial view from a Blackhawk helicopter shows damaged homes after a series of tornados swept through Tennessee— (THE TENNESSEAN)
A resident climbs over debris after her friend's home was lifted off its foundation on Sunday— (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
A spokesperson for Nashville Electric Service said that while it had managed to restore power to 18,000 customers, there was no estimated time for full restoration due to the significant damage at substations in Hendersonville and North Nashville.
According to CNN, it could take several days for the worst-hit areas to get their electricity back.
The storm came nearly two years to the day after 41 tornadoes were recorded through a handful of heartland states, including 16 in Tennessee and eight in Kentucky. A total of 81 people died in Kentucky alone during that extreme weather event.
