South
Deadly storms sweep across South with extensive tornado damage
At least four people were killed on Tuesday when severe thunderstorms, including tornadoes, tore across the South.
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.
Cottonwood, AL tornado damage
(Brandon Shoupe / FOX Weather)
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.
A close call Tuesday morning in Daphne, Alabama, with a severe thunderstorm.
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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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A man was killed in Jonesboro, Georgia after a tree fell on his vehicle.
(Clayton County Police Department / FOX Weather)
Florida hit hard by strongest January tornado on record
At least one tornado caused extensive damage on Tuesday morning in the Florida Panhandle.
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.
WHAT YOU SHOULD DO IF YOUR PROPERTY SUSTAINED TORNADO DAMAGE
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.
Storm damage in Bamberg, South Carolina
(Rep. Justin Bamberg / FOX Weather)
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.
Storm damage in Catawba County, N.C.
(FOX 46 WJZY / FOX Weather)
Next severe weather threat
(FOX Weather)
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.
Just 26%, or about one in four registered Oklahoma voters, cast a ballot in the race, according to an analysis of the results.
In total, 630,085 people weighed in on a state question to gradually increase the minimum wage. It was the only race open to Democrats, Republicans and independents, who weren’t eligible to vote in partisan races.
Democrats have typically opened their closed primaries to include independents, but failed to submit the paperwork for this year’s primaries on time. Some voters expressed frustration with the system on election day.
This year’s polls drew fewer voters than in 2018, the last time there was a similar gubernatorial race without incumbents. The election included a state question to approve medical marijuana, and 44% of registered voters cast ballots.
There are almost 1.3 million registered Republicans in Oklahoma, but the GOP race for governor only garnered about 400,000 ballots. Out of more than 613,000 registered Democrats, only about 172,000 voted in Tuesday’s election.
Even though general elections are usually better attended, Oklahoma’s numbers were also low during the 2024 presidential election. One report from the University of Florida rated Oklahoma’s turnout at the time as the lowest in the nation.
An 87-year-old businessman in Columbia, South Carolina says he has no plans to retire.
Leonard Fabrizio works as a retailer at Brittons of Columbia, a locally-owned men’s clothing store.
“I’m not the type of person who can sit around by myself,” said Fabrizio. “I just enjoy the interaction and that’s the big thing, is the interaction with people. It’s always been the drive in this business for me, said Fabrizio.
Fabrizio’s retail career began as a college student when he worked at J.C. Penney. He has watched Columbia grow and has owned a store and managed several others.
His advice is to “Be patient. It takes time to build a business. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it’s rewarding. It’s fun. But you have to have compassion for the business.”
Fabrizio recently celebrated another birthday alongside those who have supported his career.
Tennessee director of track and field Duane Ross gauged the hunger of the men’s 4×100-meter relay team to pull off the upset.
“They said, ‘Coach, we’re going to win,’ ” Ross said. “When they bring you that much confidence, you can grab your popcorn and enjoy the meet.”
No popcorn was consumed, but the appetite was there from the start.
Traunard Folson, Davonte Howell, T’Mars McCallum and Elijah Clark finished in a school record time of 37.98 seconds at the NCAA Outdoor Championships on June 12 in Eugene, Oregon. It was the the program’s first national title in the 4×100 since 1983 and the fourth-fastest in NCAA history.
Four other relay teams never crossed the line. Auburn, the two-time defending champion, had run an NCAA-record 37.75 in the semifinal, but had a botched handoff on the last exchange. Arkansas, the reigning SEC champion, also dropped its baton, along with Oregon and Houston.
McCallum said staying clean through a race of chaos starts with a focus on winning, even in practice.
“In the moment we can’t really worry about anything else, just what we can control,” McCallum said on June 18. “We came to practice every time with the idea of, ‘OK, we’ve got to make sure this is fixed, because we know if we run that time, we can win.’ “
It was the final event of McCallum’s college career. It didn’t fully hit until the long flight home to Knoxville.
“I was like, we really did it,” he said. “Now we have a school record, the first team to ever go under 38 seconds here.”
Whether belief had anything to do with what went wrong in those four other lanes isn’t something Tennessee’s runners can answer. It’s exactly what they point to for why theirs didn’t.
Clark, a freshman who ran the anchor leg, said winning was just a matter of starting the race.
“We knew we had it the whole time,” he said. “No matter who did what, what happened, we knew what the outcome would come to.”
Ross said the victory wasn’t a surprise inside the program either.
“I wouldn’t say unsung,” Ross said. “I’ve watched this team all year long, and we were expecting to come out of there with the championship. It was a tight competition down to the last event.”
Tennessee finished third in the men’s team standings with 46 points, its best total since 2002.
Howell, a junior who ran the second leg, said the belief behind the relay team’s confidence was built long before the race.
“Three of the four of us already ran under 10 seconds,” he said. “Last year we all trained together during the summer, all lived together. We already had the bond, and adding the freshman on anchor was just a cherry on top. He figured it out at SECs, ran a 10.1, season’s best, and we trusted him to bring it home.”
Clark said the title is already part of something bigger to him.
“The goal is to always make history,” said Clark, who was hired by Tennessee four years ago after a successful run at North Carolina A&T. “It’s been one of my dreams. To be able to be on the wall, especially at a school like this, I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
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