MADILL, Okla. (AP) – Severe weather blew through the South on Thursday after killing at least seven people in Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana, including a worker at a factory hit by an apparent tornado, a man whose car was blown off the road and a man who went outside to grab a trash can and was swept away in a flood.
More than 150,000 businesses and homes from Texas to Georgia were without power as the severe weather blew eastward, snapping utility lines as trees fell, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports.
In Georgia, an a suspected tornado swept through the city of Adel in Cook County, tearing off roofs and flipping at least one car and a small plane.
Johnny West, Cook County’s emergency management director, told The Valdosta Daily Times there was damage throughout the county and “heavy damage” in the city. Photos submitted to WALB-TV show trees snapped in half and metal roofing material draped over some utility lines still standing.
Damage was caused by a combination of straight-line winds and the tornado, said Wright Dobbs, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Tallahassee, Florida, office.