Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas and northeastern Florida were also torn apart by tornadoes in the United States Wednesday night, killing two people and injuring several others, according to reports by local officials at the US News Agency.
At least two deaths and two injuries have been reported in the Panhandle, Florida. The storm destroyed several homes, and fallen trees cut power lines.
In Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, nearly 200,000 were left without power by Thursday morning.A warehouse building in Mississippi also collapsed, but everyone was evacuated in time, so there were no casualties here. A tornado in and around Springdale, Arkansas, on Wednesday during the day hit winds of nearly 230 miles per hour, injuring seven people, including two. In addition to Arkansas, the states of Missouri and Mississippi have also issued an alert on an EF scale of 1, which can mean a slide of 160 mph.
Tornado alerts have been issued in several parts of Tennessee. The Mississippi Senate suspended its session after defensive sirens sounded. A number of them walked to the basement of the building.
In Tennessee, firefighters are trying to stem a growing wildfire. The devastating fires around the Great Smoky Mountains National Park have already covered more than 100 acres. Many of them were temporarily moved from the rapidly spreading disaster in the area due to the strong wind gusts.