Storms hit the South, causing death and damage

Residents were being bused to a nearby shelter operated by the American Red Cross.

WEAR-TV reported a town home on Scenic Highway was leveled.

These are the nine most intense photos we saw shared across social media. Anaya said she could not confirm a twister, although the county was under a tornado warning when the damage occurred.

The storm left tens of thousands of people without power in Louisiana, and John Bel Edwards, the state governor, declared a state of emergency in seven parishes.

Severe storms and tornadoes along the U.S. Gulf Coast killed at least three people and injured 30 on Tuesday, destroying buildings and other structures across several states. A suspected tornado ripped through a Louisiana recreational vehicle park Tuesday, leaving a mangled mess of smashed trailers and killing at least one person, officials said. At least 30 people were treated at hospitals, seven of them in critical condition, said Brandon Keller, a spokesman for the St. James Parish Sheriff’s Office. “I don’t know if it was just my imagination or not, but it felt like we were spinning around and all of a sudden it came to a stop”.

“The wind was blowing a little bit, but then it stopped”.

The tornado was part of a wave of severe weather that raked the central and southeastern part of the state with rain and winds.

On Tuesday afternoon, parts of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia were under flood and flash flood watches. The storms are expected to continue into Wednesday.

Violent thunderstorms and damaging winds in the Carolinas were expected to intensify as they moved eastward on Wednesday, with the risk for tornadoes expanding into the mid-Atlantic states.

Winds are expected to range from 20 mph to 35 mph with gusts of up to 70 mph in the western mountains.

Outside of Florida, the highest threat for severe weather is from the Carolinas to Virginia where the center of the low pressure system is headed.

The National Weather Service confirmed one other fatality near the southern MS town of Purvis, where a mobile home was destroyed.

The Lamar County Coroner identified the victim as 73-year old Harris Dale Purvis, according to CNN affiliate WLBT.

“It was like a big ball of fire”, he said, adding that the storm debris headed directly at the vehicle. He says the door was heaving and he could hear tree limbs beating on it.

The message of the test will be “This is a national test of the Emergency Alert System”. Lightning took out the radar in their Slidell office, forcing them to use backups, he said.

“Debris began flying about, and we went to our safe spot”, Chelsea O’Neal said.

In fact, Montgomery avoided damage, because there were too many storms swirling the city.

The reported tornadoes are part of a line of severe weather and storms that has ripped through the region.

Residents in LaPlace, Louisiana, were cleaning up Wednesday after a tornado ripped up trees, tore roofs from houses and terrified local residents. But Escambia County, officials had only three injuries to report.

McGill reported from Kenner, Louisiana.

Authorities are investigating the possibility that high winds caused a vacant three-story building in the Bronx to collapse.