Death toll reaches 7 from brutal storm system

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[h=4]Death toll reaches 7 from brutal storm system[/h]Residents up and down the East Coast were facing cleanup from fast-moving storms.

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Storms systems brought tornadoes to the East Coast, killing several people, and heavy snow that canceled hundreds of flights in the Midwest. Damage on the East Coast stretches from Virginia to New York. (Feb. 25) AP


Laundromat manager Brad Poindexter, of Danville, Va., walks over bricks at his damaged business after a deadly storm that swept through Waverly, Va., Feb. 24, 2016.(Photo: Steve Helber, AP)


WAVERLY, Va. —<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Rattled residents of communities across the South and East were picking through rubble Thursday after a line of vicious storms and tornadoes that blasted through the region killed seven people, injured dozens more and destroyed scores of homes.
Two men and a 2-year-old child<span style="color: Red;">*</span>died Wednesday in this rural, southeastern Virginia<span style="color: Red;">*</span>town of 2,500 people when a storm packing winds gusting to 60 mph<span style="color: Red;">*</span>tore through their mobile home. About 120 miles to the west, another man was killed and seven injured when a funnel cloud swept through a section of Appomattox County, State Police said.
On Tuesday, storms killed two people in Louisiana and one in Mississippi.
"I'm just shocked for seeing everything, with the debris and everything flying up," Waverly resident Desmond Gardner said. "Big ball of fire from the power lines and debris smacking against my car as I was sitting in it. And I heard that I lost a good friend today, so my prayers go out to their family."
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe planned to visit the state's most battered communities<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Thursday. The tornadoes were the state's first deadly February twisters on record,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>according to meteorologist Harold Brooks of the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>National Severe Storms Laboratory.
After two<span style="color: Red;">*</span>wild days of fierce storms in the southern and eastern U.S., the weather calmed down considerably on Thursday. No severe weather is expected anywhere Thursday or for the next several days, according to the Storm Prediction Center.
Snow was the story in the Midwest, where schools were shuttered in several states. Some areas were bracing for more than a foot of snow before the storm eases Thursday.
USA TODAY
Deadly February tornadoes were first on record in Virginia




USA TODAY
Storm snarls Chicago flights, heads east




Chicago's O'Hare airport was staggered by more than 1,000 flight cancellations.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Thousands of flights were canceled across the region and nearly all big U.S. carriers had enacted flexible re-booking policies. Hundreds more flights were preemptively canceled Thursday as airlines scrambled to get their planes and crews back into place.
But the South and East were also were in recovery mode.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Around Washington, D.C., thousands were without power, according to utilities Pepco and Dominion Power.
The quick-moving storm swirled north into Pennsylvania<span style="color: Red;">*</span>at about 50 mph, knocking down trees and wires along the way.
"This whole area got hit hard with this storm," Saul Schmolitz, a lieutenant with Union Fire Company, said at the scene of a downed 40-foot pine tree in East Manchester Township.

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The national weather forecast for Thursday, February 25th calls for a mix of snow and rain in the Northeast.

Township resident Carol Deller said she was watching TV when the storm started.
"The thunder cracked and power went out," she said. Deller was moving a mobile home in her driveway, preparing to sleep there for the night with her dogs.
Winds gusts were recorded at 52 mph at York Airport in Jackson Township, said Craig Evanego, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in State College.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The arriving warm front brought temperatures up to the low 60s.
A bald eagle was spotted on the eagle cam at Codorus State Park hanging on in the nest as the winds blew.
York County saw more straight-line wind damage, Evanego said. The National Weather Service had not verified reports that a tornado formed.
It was a different story in Lancaster County, he said, where more structures were damaged by winds that could be related to a tornado, though that was not verified Wednesday night.
The weather service will<span style="color: Red;">*</span>most likely<span style="color: Red;">*</span>send<span style="color: Red;">*</span>out people to inspect the damage in Lancaster to determine if a tornado moved through the area. He said the county, especially eastern Lancaster County, saw "fairly strong rotation signatures" on the doppler radar.
On Tuesday, the South took the brunt of the storms.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>One person died in Lamar County, Miss., and two others died when a suspected tornado slammed into the Sugar Hill RV Park near Convent, La.
A possible tornado destroyed 24 units and damaged six others at the Moorings Apartments in Pensacola, Fla., Escambia County officials said. More than 20,000 Georgia customers were without power after the storms, utilities reported Wednesday morning.
The U.S. averages 29 tornadoes in February — most often forming in the Deep South, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information.
Contributing: Doyle Rice,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>USA TODAY;<span style="color: Red;">*</span>York Daily Record;<span style="color: Red;">*</span>WUSA-TV, Washington, D.C.
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