The Latest: Storms roll through Carolinas, Georgia, Virginia
ATLANTA (AP) - The Latest on severe weather across the United States (all times local):
7:20 p.m.
Heavy winds are strafing the Carolinas, Virginia and Georgia as a storm system continues to move east.
A wind gust of 79 mph (127 kph) was recorded in Columbia, South Carolina, on Thursday afternoon, as heavy winds produced dozens of reports of trees down, including some that landed on houses in North Carolina and some that landed in the middle of Interstate 20 near Orangeburg, South Carolina.
Utilities reported more than 200,000 customers without power Thursday evening across Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
The storms earlier caused similar damage from Texas to Alabama. They have been blamed for one death in Mississippi, where a tree fell on a house near Shaw, killing 19-year-old Jackson Salter.
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1:15 p.m.
The death of a recent high school graduate in Mississippi is being blamed on stormy weather that's hit a swath of states.
Washington County Coroner Methel Johnson tells The Delta Democrat-Times of Greenville that 19-year-old Jackson Salter died Wednesday night after a tree fell on his home near Shaw.
Washington County Assistant Chief Deputy Percy Miles says deputies were called about 11 p.m. Wednesday.
National Weather Service Senior Forecaster Mike Edmonston says Wednesday night's storms brought winds as fast as 62 mph (100 kph) to parts of the region.
The storms left more than 200,000 customers without power across the southern United States at its peak.
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12:30 p.m.
Heavy rains have led to landslides and flooded roads in Ohio, where the weather prompted the cancellation of an upcoming country music concert.
The Riverbend Music Center along the Ohio River east of Cincinnati has postponed a Thursday evening show that was to feature country star Brantley Gilbert. The venue cited heavy rainfall and the rising river.
In central Ohio, high water forced closure of numerous roads in Columbus and part of Interstate 71 near Grove City Wednesday night.
Police in western Ohio's Bellefontaine (behl-FOWN'-tihn) said a hospital emergency room reopened Thursday after several inches of water rushed in Wednesday.
Rain in southwestern Ohio led to a landslide on a Cincinnati-area parkway. A landslide closed part of State Route 7 in eastern Ohio's Jefferson County.
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11:35 a.m.
Four people and a dog in a central Illinois village had to be rescued by police dive teams from rising waters during flash flooding after heavy rainstorms.
The flooding in Illinois happened as severe weather Wednesday and Thursday struck several parts of the United States, leaving more than 200,000 people without power across the South and flooding neighborhoods near Philadelphia.
In Illinois, several homeowners in Bethany, southeast of Springfield, were cut off Wednesday afternoon. The (Decatur) Herald & Review reports that at least one car became submerged.
The flooding was part of unseasonably wet weather across the region. Much of central Illinois was under a flash flood watch or warning Wednesday.
Forecasters warned that more storms were expected to fire up Thursday over parts of the Midwest and the South.
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9:30 a.m.
Damaging storms have left more than 200,000 people without power across the southern United States, and forecasters say more are on the way.
The Storm Prediction Center says wind damage including fallen trees that pulled down power lines and struck buildings happened along a line from Texas to Alabama. A few isolated tornadoes were reported.
More than 70,000 homes and businesses are without power in Arkansas, and more than 30,000 outages each are reported in Texas, Louisiana and Alabama, where crews are out working to remove toppled trees and clear blocked roads.
Forecasters say storms are moving eastward, and more severe weather is possible on Thursday in Alabama and Georgia all the way up the Eastern Seaboard to Pennsylvania. Flooding already is causing travel problems near Philadelphia.