Houses torn in two, eight people killed and communities in ruins: Huge storm system causes tornadoes in the South and lashes the East Coast with wind and rain
Three people including a toddler died in Virginia after storm hit a mobile home, throwing their bodies 300 feet
Another man reported missing in Virginia before a funnel cloud was also confirmed dead on Wednesday
In Darlington County, South Carolina, another man died when a tree fell on him
Three more were killed when tornadoes hit two mobile parks in Convent, Louisiana and Purvis, Mississippi
As the storm moved up the East Coast Wednesday night, heavy winds and rains left some 238,000 without power
ASHLEY COLLMAN
DAILYMAIL.COM
25 February 2016
Violent storms and tornadoes lashed the U.S. Southeast and mid-Atlantic region on Wednesday, killing at least five people in Virginia a day after twisters claimed three lives along the Gulf Coast.
Some 60 tornadoes were reported Tuesday and Wednesday from Texas to Virginia, and as the storm made it’s way up the East Coast, thousands were left without power.
New York and Washington DC were hit with heavy winds and rains at the tail end of the storm, with utility companies reporting that 238,000 people were without power in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Virginia and Maine as of 5:30am on Thursday.
Three people were confirmed dead in Waverly, Virginia, a town of some 2,300 residents about 45 miles southeast of Richmond, the state capital, where at least three structures sustained heavy damage in a mid-afternoon storm, state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said.
State police later said the three victims – two men, aged 50 and 26, and a 2-year-old boy, were killed when their mobile home was demolished in the storm. Their bodies were all found about 300 yards from the trailer site, police said.
The body of a fourth person, an adult male, was recovered late on Wednesday in the Evergreen community of Appomattox County, near Lynchburg, after a funnel cloud was reported over the area, police said.
Yet another fatality was recorded in South Carolina, where a man named Michael James Sr died after being hit by a falling tree in Darlington County, according to NBC News.
Two highways leading into Waverly, Virginia – U.S. Route 460 and State Route 40 – were left impassable by heavy debris from the storm, state police said. Authorities also were responding to widespread reports of local flooding.
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