Crews were assessing damage Tuesday in the aftermath of storms that killed at least five people and brought heavy rain and strong winds to the Southeast.
The line of severe thunderstorms spawned several possible tornadoes as the storms moved across Alabama, Georgia and the Florida Panhandle. The worst of the storms had passed through the region by late Tuesday morning as the system headed toward the Atlantic Ocean.
Four people were killed Monday evening when a tree fell on their mobile home in Rehobeth, Ala., said Kris Ware, a spokeswoman for the Dothan Houston County Emergency Management Agency.
Teams of surveyors were headed out Tuesday to assess apparent tornado damage at three sites in southeastern Alabama and southwestern Georgia, said Mark Wool, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Tallahassee, Fla.
Wool said authorities believe a tornado is responsible for damage that left the four people dead in Alabama, but he said the weather service won’t be able to say for sure until experts visit the site.
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said in a statement on social media that the Houston County sheriff had told him about the deaths and he offered “prayers for those impacted.”
In Florida, the Walton County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that 70-year-old William Patrick Corley’s body was found Monday afternoon following flooding near the Shoal River in Mossy Head. Authorities said Corley’s car was partially submerged and his body was floating face-down nearby.
The sheriff’s office said Corley’s death remained under investigation, but no foul play was suspected.
State emergency officials reported no injuries or deaths in Louisiana and Mississippi, but a trip to Wal-Mart was memorable for some shoppers in Marksville, La., as severe weather blew out skylights in the store, sending water and glass cascading onto shoppers.
Marksville fire Chief Jerry Bordelon said a fireworks stand in the Wal-Mart parking lot was tossed 30 or 40 yards and mangled. The storm also knocked over 18-wheel truck trailers and punched holes in the store’s roof. The fire department ordered shoppers to leave the store, but some didn’t want to leave even as managers closed it.
“Believe it or not, we had some people in there who were still trying to shop,” Bordelon said.
Storms in central Mississippi near Mendenhall and Mount Olive were preliminarily identified as tornadoes by the National Weather Service, based in part on radar signatures.