CNN
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The severe weather threat is moving to the Southeast and East Coast after fierce tornado-spawning storms pummeled Texas and Mississippi, tearing through homes and leaving at least two people dead.
A high school student in Natchez, Mississippi, died after a tree fell onto a home, Adams County emergency officials said Saturday. Another person died in northern Brazoria County, Texas, where a tornado touched down in four different locations, according to Sheriff Bo Stallman.
Crews in the South were conducting searches and assessing the damage as severe storms took aim at the Southeast. Cities from north Florida to the Carolinas could see damaging wind gusts, large hail and possible tornadoes on Sunday.
“Severe thunderstorms and embedded heavy rainfall will affect most of the eastern states through Sunday,” the National Weather Service said.
Tornado watches are in place Sunday morning for parts of Southeast Louisiana, and into Alabama and parts of Florida and Tennessee, according to the weather service.
Multiple tornado sightings were reported Saturday as millions of Americans were under threat of strong twisters across Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
Storm chaser video shows a violent, long-track tornado churning through McCall Creek in southwest central Mississippi Saturday. In Porter, Texas, drone footage shows multiple houses with their roofs ripped off, splintered buildings and toppled trees.
More than 182,000 residents were without power Sunday morning accross Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee, according to PowerOutage.us. A majority of those outages were reported in Mississippi where nearly 85,000 customers were without power as of 2 a.m. ET.
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Sever weather caused a partial power outage at Mississippi’s Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport, which resulted in delays and cancellations, the airport said in a social media post. The power outage has since been resolved, the airport said.
On Sunday, the severe storm spreads to the Southeast, the East Coast and parts of the mid-Atlantic. The area includes the cities of Atlanta, Georgia, and Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina.
“Run,” Anna Peterson told her husband after hearing the backdoor of her Brazoria County home fly open.
The couple hid in a closet with their puppies as the storm intensified, she told CNN affiliate KHOU.
“About two or three minutes later, it was over and then we opened the front door to see, and it was all gone,” she said.
The fifth-wheel trailer that had been secured on Peterson’s property had been blown into the property next door and destroyed.
A tornado touched down in multiple different locations within a small area in Brazoria County and had a quick impact, according to Sheriff Stallman.
“The damage has been extremely devastating,” he said.
Officials in Brazoria County were working to accommodate teachers and students at Walt Disney Elementary School, after it experienced storm damage, according to Manvel Mayor Dan Davis.
Davis shared a photo from inside the school in a Facebook post, which shows significant damage to the school’s ceiling and debris scattered along the floor.
“Recovery efforts across the area have commenced and I’m grateful to live in a County where the people truly care about one another,” Davis said. “Over the next few days, properties will be cleared, power will be restored, and lives will start to be rebuilt. Please keep praying for all of those impacted!”
Residents in Montgomery County, which sits about 80 miles north of Brazoria County, are also recovering from a likely tornado in their community.
Things went from “bad to worse” for Bill Hustus, who told KHOU that strong winds caused trees to fall on his house, and destroyed a home in his community.
“There was a two-story house right there [across the street] that is no longer there,” he said.
Tornadoes are much less common in the US during December, averaging only around 40 – compared to the nearly 270 seen on average in May. This year, however, there have been 1,783 tornado reports as of December 27 – well above the average of 1,347 reports.
