The nation's deadliest storm surge since six years ago has left at least 30 people dead, and thousands struck with terror as brutal winds battered the East Coast on Monday, following Easter Sunday.
It has been the nation's most destructive tornado outbreak in six years. In April 2014, a storm killed 35 people in the central and southern US. People are still shaken by the recent events as many are left without electricity, some in temporary shelters, and a lot are plain thankful for having survived the storm.
The Weather Channel reported savage winds across the East on Monday, a day after about 40 reported tornadoes hammered several states. The Storm Prediction Center announced a more composed weather forecast for Tuesday, with only a slight chance of severe storms in limited areas in the South. The center also assured the good news that the danger of tornadoes is now low.
Tornado Leaves Millions Without Power
After the lashing of the storm, PowerOutage.US announced that almost 1.3 million people in at least 20 states were left powerless at about 1 P.M. local time. Among the most significant outages were in the Carolinas.
In Rhode Island, more than 26,000 were without power across the state. National Grid reports that the outages are expected to continue until Tuesday evening. Meanwhile, in Hamptons Road, power outages reached 110,000, while southeast Virginia reached 53,000 as of 5 P.M.
The vice president of New England Electric Operations for National Grid, Michael McCallan, said he completely understands that the country and the company's customers are "already experiencing an incredibly challenging situation with the coronavirus pandemic" and National Grid will do everything in their capacity to keep the power running.
Bonita Billingsley Harris, Dominion spokesperson, said they would begin adding Estimated Restoration Times on Monday night so that customers may be able to see it in the following morning. Harris added that the majority could expect their service back by 11 P.M. on Tuesday, with a few extending into Wednesday.
Citizens can check the status of power outages using National Grid's interactive online map.
Still Thankful to Have Survived
Deaths from the tornadoes continue to add up as the clean-up process is just starting. So far, the death toll has reached a total of 30. Eleven were killed in Mississippi, nine were found dead in South Carolina, and six more died in northwest Georgia. Other casualties died under falling trees or inside collapsed buildings in Arkansas and North Carolina.
In the Chattanooga area, at least 14 people were hospitalized. The local fire department revealed that they were responding to more than 300 emergency calls related to the storms. At least ten fire department search and rescue teams were going door to door in response to these calls.
Gloria Yonce, a local of Williston, South Carolina, claims that the most important thing despite the catastrophe is that the Lord had spared their lives. She adds that everything will be alright, as material things are replaceable.
Yonce and her family started cleaning up remnants left by the storm first thing in the morning as soon as the sun came up. Some damages caused by the tornadoes will cause days, weeks, and even months to fix.
