4 dead after storm system sweeps across South

Four people were dead in three Southern states over the weekend after a severe weather system marched across the region, unleashing tornadoes in Texas and Mississippi and heavy rains in the Carolinas.

In Iredell County, North Carolina, about 45 miles north of Charlotte, a man was killed Sunday morning when a tree fell on his pickup truck while he was driving in heavy rain, the North Carolina State Highway Patrol said. The man, whom authorities identified as Matthew Ronald Teeple, of Cleveland, North Carolina, was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said.

On Saturday, three people were killed and several others were injured when the same storm system spawned a tornado in southeastern Texas and severe storms in Mississippi, authorities said.

A tornado touched down multiple times early Saturday afternoon in Brazoria County, Texas, about 30 miles south of Houston, said Madison Polston, a spokesperson for the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office. More than a dozen homes, several businesses and an elementary school were damaged, she added.

The body of a 48-year-old woman was found about 100 feet from her home in Liverpool, Texas, on Saturday. Preliminary reports indicated that her death was related to the storm, Madison said.

The injured were all in noncritical condition Sunday and no additional injuries were expected.

“We rarely get tornadoes here in Brazoria County,” Polston said Saturday. “If we do, for there to be damage to this extent, or injuries, is also very uncommon.”

Later Saturday, two people were killed and several others were injured in severe weather in Mississippi, Gov. Tate Reeves said on social media. One of the deaths occurred in Adams County, and the other in Lowndes County. Six weather-related injuries were reported in Franklin, Simpson and Wayne counties, he said.

Preliminary reports show that there were at least five tornadoes in Mississippi on Saturday, and teams were surveying damaged areas to investigate, according to Logan Poole, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s office in Jackson, Mississippi.

“That number is almost certain to grow,” he said.

In Texas, there were reports of heavy structural damage from a possible tornado in Montgomery County, north of Houston, according to the Montgomery County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Damage from a possible tornado at the East County Fire Department in Montgomery County resulted in minor injuries, according to the service.

Storms producing tornadoes are rarely seen in the Southeast this time of year, Christopher Rainer, a meteorologist with the weather service in Jackson, said Sunday.

“We don’t get many of these type of outbreaks, at least here in the Southeast, at least not around the month of December,” he said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2024 The New York Times Company