Tornado watch extended through 10:00 pm

The severe weather caused several closings and power outages.

An earlier tornado warning was prompted by a unsafe storm over Rex, near Red Springs, at about 5 p.m.

Dominion reports only a handful of customers without service in northeastern North Carolina.

A tornado warning for northeastern Robeson County was canceled just before 6:30 p.m., after a risky storm moved over Lumberton and out of the area.

“One of the telling signs is the very concentrated damage on a long path”, she said. A tornado ripped through Prairieville, southeast of Baton Rouge, tearing the roof off a Gold’s Gym, but there were no reports of injuries.

Meteorologists said the tornado that destroyed the Morning Apartments and other homes and damaged a GE plant was an EF3, with winds about 135 mph at its peak and was on the ground for 8 miles. There’s another line of thunderstorms to the west, he said.

Police are reporting storm damage in Sussex County in southeastern Virginia. WARNING means Take Action: a tornado has been spotted; take shelter immediately.

“Through our emergency notification system we did the weather update through our alert system”, said Suzanne Seurattan, a spokeswoman for the university.

The entire Historic Triangle is included in the outlook, which warns of a moderate risk of severe thunderstorms this afternoon and evening.

The nation’s largest utility says more than 37,000 of those without service are in North Carolina. Those orders come from Gov. Pat McCrory. Snow accumulation could be anywhere from 1 to 4 inches (with higher amounts expected in the upper elevations along the Tennessee border).

The National Weather Service has confirmed seven tornadoes touched down in Virginia during the storms Wednesday.

The system is expected to bring winds over 60 miles per hour.

The winds will kick up the surf on beaches south of Cape Hatteras.

Four people were killed in Virginia when tornadoes stretching from Southside Virginia to the coastal plain hit the state.

The flash flood watch is in effect from 5-9 p.m. The National Weather Service said locally heavy rainfall could lead to local streams rising and flooding suddenly.

The advisory is in effect in Allendale, Beaufort, Berkeley, Charleston, Colleton, Dorchester, Hampton and Jasper counties. Schools were closed in parts of Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas ahead of the storms.