Dangerous line of storms targets nearly entire Eastern Seaboard after killing at least 7 in central US

By Matthew Rehbein, Hanna Park and CNN Meteorologists Mary Gilbert and Gene Norman

(CNN) — A dangerous, wide-reaching storm is threatening tens of millions of people along nearly the entire Eastern Seaboard Monday after touching off several tornadoes, dropping baseball-sized hail and killing at least seven people in the central US this weekend.

Three children – ages 2, 4 and 11 – were killed and three other people were injured in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, after a tree toppled onto a vehicle late Sunday afternoon, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office. The 2-year-old and 4-year-old were siblings, and the 11-year-old was their cousin, the release said.

The sheriff’s office had initially told CNN two of the injured were parents of the children. The updated news release did not include details on the injured.

“It was a terrible scene to witness and respond to,” Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller told CNN.

A 57-year-old man died from his injuries after a tree fell on his home during a storm in Stockbridge Township, Michigan, on Sunday night, Stockbridge Police Chief Matthew Bartus told CNN in an email. Stockbridge is located in Ingham County, around 35 miles southeast of the state’s capital, Lansing.

Earlier Sunday, a semi-truck driver was killed in Valparaiso, Indiana, when powerful winds blew his vehicle over, according to CNN affiliate WLS. Winds in the area gusted to 80 mph at the time.

Another person died after strong winds knocked over an Amish buggy carrying a family of four in Middlebury, Indiana – about 70 miles east of Valparaiso – Sunday, an Elkhart County dispatcher told CNN.

In Oklahoma’s Cherokee County early Sunday, a thunderstorm knocked a tree onto a couple’s trailer next to the Illinois River, killing a man inside, officials told CNN affiliate KJRH. Gusts in the area neared 50 mph, according to KJRH.

These thunderstorms were ongoing Monday afternoon in parts of the South and were steadily tracking east.

More than 400,000 homes and businesses were without power Monday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us.

A majority of the outages – over 250,000 – were in Michigan, where severe thunderstorms slammed the southern half of the state and ice brought down power lines in the north Sunday. Outages were also reported where severe thunderstorms moved through the South Monday in Louisiana, Mississippi Alabama, Georgia and Florida.

Severe threat targets East Coast

Damaging thunderstorms roared through parts of the Southeast Monday morning and intensified further in the early afternoon as they headed east.

The line of storms slammed into the Atlanta metro area shortly after noon and brought drenching rain, strong winds and hail.

A ground stop was in effect at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport early Monday afternoon, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. More than 800 flights into or out of the busiest airport in the world have been delayed as of Monday afternoon, according to FlightAware.

Atlanta wasn’t the only airport affected by chaotic weather: Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina was also under a ground stop on Monday afternoon due to thunderstorms, according to the FAA.

Over 9,000 flights across the country have been delayed and more than 800 cancelled as of Monday at 7:30 p.m. ET, according to FlightAware, an application that tracks flight data across the United States. Among the most impacted airports are Boston Logan International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport.

A level 3 of 5 risk of severe thunderstorms is in place from Georgia through North Carolina, according to the Storm Prediction Center.

Storms in this area could unleash widespread damaging wind gusts, hail and tornadoes. These storms could produce flooding as some of them will train – or move across the same areas – repeatedly.

Potent thunderstorms started to fire up farther north into the Appalachians mid-afternoon. The storms will continue to strengthen and span nearly the entire East Coast by the evening.

The Northeast’s primary threat will be damaging wind gusts and hail but tornadoes cannot be ruled out.

The storms are expected to linger overnight from the Mid-Atlantic to the Northeast before moving into the Atlantic Ocean by Tuesday.

Damaging thunderstorms spawned tornadoes in multiple states Sunday

At least one confirmed tornado occurred in seven states – Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Illinois and Michigan – Sunday as severe thunderstorms stretched over hundreds of miles of the US.

A possible tornado caused damage in McEwen, Tennessee, a town about 50 miles west of Nashville, according to CNN affiliate WSMV. The roof was torn off at least one home in the McEwen area. The homeowners were trapped inside but were not injured, the county sheriff told WSMV.

March has already delivered an extraordinary number of tornado reports, surpassing the number from the same time last year. Some of the same regions struck by deadly storms earlier this month once again found themselves in harm’s way Sunday, including northeastern Arkansas.

The storms also dumped damaging hail, some up to the size of baseballs, with more than 200 hail reports submitted to the Storm Prediction Center Sunday.

Photos from the Oklahoma City area sent to CNN affiliate KOCO late Saturday showed hailstones ranging from about the size of a quarter to a golf ball, many of them spiked.

Powerful winds also brought down trees and power lines. Many of the most intense storms struck after nightfall, elevating the danger.

Storm damage can be incredibly difficult to spot in the dark, as one driver in Louisville, Kentucky, learned Sunday night, when they collided with a tree that had fallen across a road. The driver was checked by emergency services.

Heavy rain also deluged some areas, leading to dangerous flash flooding.

Flash flood emergencies – the highest level of flash flood warning – were issued Sunday afternoon in southern Mississippi after more than six inches of rain fell in a very short period. Additional flash flooding is likely Monday, especially across the South.

In the Midwest, Michigan felt the wide-reaching storm’s warm, severe thunderstorm side as well as its cold, icy side.

Up to half an inch of ice accumulated on power lines and trees in northern Michigan. The snow and ice ended in the state early Monday morning.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency for 10 counties Monday to help with recovery after the ice storm caused “power outages, including loss of backup generators, loss of phone and cellular services, and impassable roads due to downed trees and other debris,” a state police news release said.

To the south in the state’s Kalamazoo County, officials were juggling more than 130 reports of storm damage “and rapidly counting,” the sheriff’s office said on Facebook late Sunday. More trees weakened by the high winds and drenched soil are likely to fall, the sheriff warned, urging residents to treat any downed wires as live and dangerous.

Southern Michigan also had two confirmed tornadoes Sunday.

Severe thunderstorm season is ramping up, with more storms possible this week

This year has already seen numerous tornadoes, with approximately 300 tornado reports logged since January—nearly double the 164 reported by this time last year.

Last year, tornado activity surged in late spring and persisted through December, resulting in nearly 2,000 tornado reports. It was the second-most tornado reports in a single year in the past 15 years, surpassed only by 2017.

This spring’s procession of severe storm systems looks likely to continue.

Forecasters are monitoring a large area from Texas to the Midwest for another potential round of thunderstorms on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Residents across all affected regions are urged to stay informed and have multiple ways to receive weather alerts, especially in areas at risk for nighttime storms.

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CNN’s Nick Valencia, Jason Morris, Lechelle Benken, Joe Sutton, and Zoe Sottile contributed to this report.