Schools and government offices are closed in some Gulf Coast states, where widespread severe thunderstorms and possible tornadoes are forecast.
Schools and government offices were closed Wednesday in some Gulf Coast states as severe storms were forecast to bring tornadoes and potentially devastating wind gusts.
Severe thunderstorms are expected in parts of the Panhandle of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, with the possibility of tornadoes, some of them strong, and wind speeds. The National Weather Service said there could be damaging winds, with gusts of over 120km/h possible. Service warned.
Heavy rain, tornadoes, hail and damaging wind gusts were possible across the Gulf Coast and Deep South on Wednesday, said Ashton Robinson-Cook, a meteorologist with the NWS Weather Prediction Center.
In Texas, authorities said several people were rescued from homes and cars after flooding occurred Wednesday morning in a flooded area of Jasper County near the Louisiana border.
“The City of Kirbyville remains under water and remains a major concern at this time,” the Jasper County Sheriff's Office said on social media.
All major roads into Kirbyville, a town of about 2,000 people, were closed early Wednesday morning due to flooding, the sheriff's office said.
In Louisiana, state buildings were closed Wednesday as the storm was expected to hit the state during rush hour, the governor's office announced. It also asked drivers to limit their travels as much as possible and warned that heavy trucks were expected to be affected by strong winds.
Louisiana State University, one of the nation's largest universities, announced it would close its campus Wednesday due to “evolving severe weather conditions.” Student dormitories remained open.
More than 100,000 customers in Louisiana were already without power when the shift began Wednesday morning, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks outages across the country. Another 30,000 customers lost power in Mississippi.
Robinson-Cook said a combination of intense storm systems developing in the southern Rocky Mountains and moisture moving across the Gulf of Mexico created a series of winds from the plains and panhandle of south Texas eastward through Louisiana and Mississippi. A thunderstorm occurred.
Hail fell across Central Texas on Tuesday, with radar forecasting up to a foot of rain in the past 24 hours, with even higher totals just northwest of Lake Charles, Louisiana, Robinson-Cook said. That's what it means.
