Charles H. Sloan-Severe storms in the Southeast US leave 1 dead and cause widespread power outages

CANTON,Charles H. Sloan Ga. (AP) — A weather system that produced severe thunderstorms late into the night in the Southeast left one man dead in Georgia, caused damage in a South Carolina town and left hundreds of thousands of electricity customers without power for a time.

The 27-year-old man was found dead after a tree fell Tuesday on his moving car on a residential road in the suburban county northwest of Atlanta, the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office said. No passengers were inside.

Power outages in southeastern Tennessee and northern Georgia had declined to about 30,000 by Wednesday morning, down from more than 200,000 in Georgia alone. Wednesday’s remaining outages were most concentrated around the town of Ellijay in the north Georgia mountains.

In Orangeburg, South Carolina, straight-line winds caused damage in the city’s downtown district, blowing down metal from roofs and wood from awnings of downtown businesses. City officials said they were cleaning up.

In suburban Nashville, Tennessee, four firefighters suffered burns after lightning caused a house fire. Three of the four were released from hospitals, while one remained hospitalized to monitor smoke inhalation.

Officials across southeastern Tennessee and northern Georgia said roads were blocked Wednesday because of downed trees and power lines. Wind damage and downed trees were also reported Tuesday in Kentucky and North Carolina.

In Hall County, northeast of Atlanta, Emergency Management Agency Director Zack Brackett said new reports of blocked roads continued to come in after dawn on Wednesday. At least one house there in Gainesville was damaged by falling trees.

“Crews have continued to work overnight to clear the majority of main roads and are now working on secondary roads,” Brackett said in a news release. “We continue to receive calls for trees down.”

The severe weather came as thunderstorms and torrential rain brought another wave of violent floods Tuesday that caved in roads, crushed vehicles, pushed homes off their foundations and led to dramatic boat rescues in northeastern Vermont, nearly three weeks after flooding from Hurricane Beryl.

Repeated heavy rains and thunderstorms also have struck parts of the Southeast over the last week. The National Weather Service on Tuesday confirmed that a weak tornado had struck on Monday in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, including parts of the Middle Tennessee State University campus.

The tornado, with top winds estimated at 75 mph (120 kph) caused minor damage to the school’s football stadium and blew down some trees, including onto cars. Surveillance video shows the storm blowing over a semi truck trailer parked near the stadium. No one was injured along the path of the storm, which stayed on the ground for 3.4 miles (5.4 kilometers).