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Massive Storm Batters U.S. With Hail, Flooding and a Tornado

A sprawling set of storms tore across the country Sunday, flattening 10 homes in Tennessee, dumping hail in Michigan and triggering tornado warnings.
Image: A family looks at their destroyed home after a tornado hit Kingsport, Tenn., on Sunday evening.
A family looks at their destroyed home after a tornado hit Kingsport, Tenn., on Sunday evening. No one was in the home when the tornado hit.Courtesy Callan Gray / WCYB

A sprawling set of storms tore across the country Sunday, flattening homes in Tennessee, dumping softball-sized hail in Michigan, and triggering tornado warnings from Kentucky to Connecticut.

By Sunday night, one injury was reported in Tennessee and one tornado was confirmed — it touched down briefly in Wolcott, Conn., at 12:50 pm said Kevin Roth, a meteorologist with The Weather Channel.

Tornadoes were also reported in Tennessee and West Virginia Sunday afternoon and evening. Just north of Knoxville, Tenn., near the Kentucky border, the Claiborne County emergency manager reported that 10 homes had been “completely destroyed.” It was unclear if the damage was from a tornado or wind, Roth said.

In Ohio, Tamara McBride, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Emergency Management Office, said that "significant" flooding caused evacuations in the northeastern section of the state.

Images published by NBC affiliate WKYC in Cleveland showed cars submerged in flooded intersections and under overpasses.

In Knoxville, 35,000 were without power. In Michigan, that number climbed to about 160,000, and in Kentucky, where more than 30,000 people lost electricity at the height of the storm late Saturday night, the number had dwindled to 4,000.

Roth said the storms were unusual for this time of year. A cold front was moving south through Tennessee, while a warm front was barreling east, from Michigan to southern New England.

“The last time they had this many tornado warnings was three years ago, in April,” Roth said. “That’s their severe season. If we get them in July, it’s usually at the Canadian border. That’s where the jet stream would be.”

Severe weather was expected from New Jersey to western Massachusetts early Monday morning. “Once that band goes by, it’ll go to New England," Roth said. During the day, another set of potentially powerful storms was expected from eastern North Carolina to the Gulf Coast.

Unseasonably cool weather will follow the rain, Roth said: from Boston to Atlanta, temperatures on Wednesday morning will plummet to the upper 50s and low 60s.

Meanwhile, in the West, states from Arizona to Nevada were bracing for monsoon season, when winds blow from the Southeast, triggering flash flooding and two very different kinds of storms.

"You get the dust, then you get the rain on top of it," Roth said.