The death toll from a storm system that spawned several possible tornadoes as it slammed the Southeast has risen to at least five, officials said Thursday as search crews went out to look for more victims and survivors.
Officials in central North Carolina said a death in Davidson County was weather-related. However, Emergency Services director Jeff Smith did not have any other details early Thursday.
Suspected tornadoes were reported Wednesday in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina.
Dozens of homes and buildings were damaged and thousands of people were without power as trees and power lines were downed.
In South Carolina, three people were killed and five injured when a likely tornado swept through a rural community near Rock Hill, about 20 miles south of Charlotte, N.C.
that search crews in York County, S.C., were to head back out Thursday morning to look for anyone who still might be unaccounted for and help cleaning up.
'Dogs beat the door down'Power crews were on scene and had began the process of restoring power to customers, WCNC reported.
The station said rescuers in York County walked through wreckage of trees blown down by the winds during the night, desp erately searching for survivors.
Local resident John Hatfield said his dogs had raised the alarm.
"It was raining pretty hard and my dogs beat the door down and as soon as we let them in we felt the house shake, big rumble, suddenly got wet, the power went out, started flashing," he told WCNC.
When he came out he saw nothing but devastation, the station reported. A car flipped on its roof in his neighbors yard. Another buried under trees.
"It’s kind of disturbing and that's the most disturbing part, seeing that child's car seat sitting by the road, not knowing what kids were injured or people were hurt. Not knowing is a bad thing," Hatfield added.
Less than seven months ago, a massive tornado roared past the campus of archrival University of Alabama in the western part of the state.
It was the worst bout of weather for the state since about 250 people were killed during the tornado outbreak in April. Both campuses were spared major damage this time.
In Rock Hill, Simone Moore told The Herald newspaper that she was sitting on her back porch when she saw the tornado touch down and then quickly move back up. She said after the storm passed, she noticed a nearby trailer had vanished.
"Everything's gone," Moore said. "Even the cows in the pasture."
As weather service experts fanned out to assess damage, Auburn graduate student Staci DeGeer didn't have any doubts about what sent a pair of trees crashing through her mobile home at Ridgewood Village.
"It's tornado damage. I'm from Kansas; I know tornado damage," said DeGeer, who wasn't home at the time. "It's kind of hit or miss. There will be two or three (trailers) that are bad and then a few that are OK."
A similar scene occurred in southeastern Mississippi, where Jones County emergency director Don McKinnon said some people were briefly trapped in their homes as trees fell on them. Mobile homes were tossed off their foundations. In all, 15 people were hurt in the area.
Forecasters said a cold front stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Northeast was to blame. Temperatures dropped in some areas from the low 70s to the 50s as the front passed, and winds gusted to near 30 mph.
'Edge of the chair'
Damage was reported in several parts of Alabama. In Sumter County, in the west-central part of the state, an elderly woman was in her home as a tree crashed into it. She had to be taken to the hospital.
Nearly 23,000 Alabama Power Company customers in Montgomery, the state capital, and Auburn, home of Auburn University, were without power Wednesday afternoon, company spokesman Freddy Padilla said.
In Tuscaloosa, home of the University of Alabama, the day was a harsh reminder of the threat of violent weather for communities still recovering from the killer tornadoes.
"It makes you sit up on the edge of the chair a little more," said Tom Perryman, who works for the school system in Tuscaloosa County, which was hard hit in April.
Some 130 miles to the east, the ailing oaks at Toomer's Corner on the Auburn campus, were still standing. An Alabama fan is suspected of poisoning the famous trees in February.
Nearby, DeGeer's dog Jack rode out the storm in her mobile home without injury, but the trailer itself didn't fare as well.
"It looks like I redecorated with a wilderness theme. There are trees through my house," she said.
In southern Louisiana, a suspected tornado hit a neighborhood in Houma, splintering a home. Crews helped clean up storm debris near a school and the Red Cross sent workers to help with damage assessments.