PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. – At least four people were killed, and several others injured after severe thunderstorms, including tornadoes, swept across portions of the South on Tuesday as damage was reported in seven states.

Communities in Florida and the Carolinas appeared to be the hardest hit, with significant damage to homes and businesses.

Nearly 1 million power outages were reported during the peak of the storm system across the eastern half of the country, with the mid-Atlantic being the hardest hit.

Two dead in Alabama

Storms started the morning over Alabama, knocking over trees and producing at least one suspected tornado.

The heaviest concentration of damage was near the Florida-Alabama border in Houston County.

Local authorities said 81-year-old Charlotte Pascal was killed when a suspected tornado ripped through the community of Cottonwood around 7:30 a.m.

Houston County Commissioner Brandon Shoupe said recovery efforts in the town would take weeks and encouraged residents not to travel while power lines and debris blocked roadways.

Further north, the conditions the storm system left behind caused trees to fall.

The National Weather Service office in Birmingham said wind gusts around 40 mph and saturated grounds likely played a role in a tree falling onto a sedan, killing a driver.

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Georgia morning commute deadly

In the Peach State, police said a man was killed in the metro Atlanta region after a tree fell during gusty winds in Jonesboro.

Authorities said the man was the only person in the vehicle as the tree fell along Highway 54.

The National Weather Service office in Peachtree City issued Severe Thunderstorm Warnings for many counties, including the always-busy Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

The severe weather caused hundreds of delays and cancelations, and some flights had to be diverted to other airports in the Southeast due to a lengthy ground stop.

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Florida hit hard by strongest January tornado on record

Significant damage was reported in Bay County after at least one tornado tore through the Florida Panhandle.

“We had a lot of tornadoes on the ground in Walton County,” said Florida Division of Emergency Management Executive Director Kevin Guthrie. “We have some on the ground in Panama City. The Lower Lagoon area has had some major damage there to a condo and a couple of houses.”

Boats in the area were also damaged, with Guthrie saying some were flipped over when the storms pushed through.

Some of the homes that were impacted were damaged just five years ago during Hurricane Michael.

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared a State of Emergency in more than half the state’s counties.

No part of the Sunshine State was immune from the severe weather, with damage elsewhere reported around Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville.

NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center (SPC) issued a storm report noting a 106-mph wind gust at Ed Walline Beach Access near Santa Rosa Beach, Florida.

A gust between 96-110 mph is as strong as a Category 2 hurricane.

Meteorologists gave the Panama City tornado a preliminary rating of EF-3 with winds between 136 and 165 mph. This is the strongest January tornado on record in Florida and the first F/EF-3 twister to hit the state in the month of January. Overall, there have been 49 F/EF-3 or stronger tornadoes in Florida’s history.

Winds cause problems in South Carolina

Damaging wind gusts and at least one tornado were reported in the Palmetto State during the afternoon.

The heaviest concentration of damage appeared to be in Bamberg, South Carolina, where walls of buildings collapsed in the town’s historic downtown.

“Numerous structures heavily damaged or destroyed along Main Hwy and in other parts of Bamberg,” the SPC noted.

And along the coast, authorities advised against travel on bridges as wind gusts of 50-70 mph were possible.

At least one tractor-trailer truck was overturned on the Ravenel Bridge, which connects downtown Charleston to Mount Pleasant.

Authorities did not report any injuries associated with the crash and traffic was flowing at the speed limit again after the crash was cleaned up.

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Mobile home park damaged in North Carolina 

An EF-1 tornado rolled through a mobile home park in the Claremont community, north of Charlotte, during the late afternoon, leaving at least 30 people without homes.

According to radar, the storm produced a tornado in Catawba County, which jumped Interstate 40.

Emergency services reported extensive damage to a mobile home park, where one person was killed and at least four others injured.

Photos of the scene showed several homes that were either damaged or destroyed during the severe weather.

After the severe weather, the American Red Cross opened a shelter for storm victims at nearby church.

The NWS said from its preliminary investigation the twister had winds of at least 110 mph and was wider the size of two football fields.

Next severe weather threat 

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The FOX Forecast Center is already monitoring the next storm system that could produce another round of severe weather in communities impacted on Tuesday.

The energy associated with the next storm system is located along the West Coast, where a Blizzard Warning was in effect for higher elevations, and winds gusted to over 100 mph.

The best chance of severe storms will come Thursday and Friday as the northern tier of the country deals with snow.