(Judy Keen, Jessie Halladay & Doyle Rice, USA Today)
Two days after a series of violent storms killed 13 people in the Midwest and South, Friday’s massive thunderstorms threw off scores of tornadoes, crushing entire blocks of homes. The latest count included 19 dead in Kentucky, 12 in Indiana, three in Ohio and one each in Alabama and Georgia. Tornadoes also were reported in Mississippi, Tennessee, Illinois, North Carolina, and Virginia. And ten tornadoes were reported on Saturday in Georgia and Florida.
The storm outbreak has the potential to be the USA’s largest ever recorded in March, Weather Channel severe storm expert Greg Forbes said. The Storm Prediction Center had received 99 reports of tornadoes from Friday across the central and southern USA. Only days into the month, this is already the USA’s deadliest March for tornadoes since 1994, when 40 people were killed, according to the National Climatic Data Center.
The storm system was so strong and vast that as many as 34 million people were in the “high” or “moderate” risk categories for severe weather on Friday, says meteorologist Harold Brooks of the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla.
Following a violent week of weather, the next few days will be quiet and cool across much of the eastern half of the nation. (Read more at USA Today)
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- Doc Says Mosquitoes Aren’t As Dangerous As You Think (KUHF Public Radio)
- Christy Turlington Burns Is an Activist for Moms, And Texas Children’s Hospital Applauds (Houston Culture Map)
- Inside Beren Academy: Jewish School Urged Parents Not To Sue to Keep Dream Season Alive, Now Worries in Triumph (Houston Culture Map)
- BP Deal Opens a New Phase, but Case Is Far From Closed (New York Times)
OPINIONS ON THE NEWS:
- Loren Stefy: BP Settlement May Bring Closure, Raise New Questions for Victims’ Families (Houston Chronicle)
- Lisa Falkenberg: High-Stakes Testing Gets Teachers Talking (Houston Chronicle)