ATLANTA — Forecasters warned of a “particularly dangerous situation” as a storm system packing strong winds and heavy rain slammed the nation’s mid-section Wednesday, and officials said they feared Christmas yard decorations would become projectiles.
A tree blew over onto a house in Arkansas, killing an 18-year-old woman and trapping a 1-year-old child inside, authorities said. Rescuers pulled the toddler safely from the home.
The biggest threat for tornadoes was in a region of 3.7 million people in Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas and parts of Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky, according to the national Storm Prediction Center in Oklahoma. The center issued its “particularly dangerous situation” alert for the first time since June 2014, when two massive EF4 twisters devastated a rural Nebraska town, killing two people.
The greatest risk for a few “intense, long-tracked tornadoes” will be through Wednesday night, the center said.
“They’re opening all our tornado shelters because they say there’s an 80 percent chance of a tornado today,” said Brandi Holland, a convenience store clerk in Tupelo, Mississippi.
She said people were nervous because they were reminded of a tornado that damaged or destroyed more than 2,000 homes and businesses in April 2014.
Elsewhere, the Northeast enjoyed spring-like temperatures as people rushed to finish last-minute shopping and skiers on the slopes out West got a fresh taste of powder.
