Storms in South kill girl in Florida, bring tornado threat

A strong storm system barreling through the South on Friday killed an 8-year-old girl in Florida and threatened to bring tornadoes to large parts of the Carolinas and southern Virginia.

A tree fell onto a house in Woodville, Florida, south of Tallahassee, killing the girl and injuring a 12-year-old boy, according to the Leon County Sheriff's Office. The office said in a statement that the girl died at a hospital while the boy suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Their names weren't immediately released.

The same storm system was blamed for the deaths a day earlier of three people in Mississippi and a woman in Alabama.

Justus Harvey, 16, left, and his friend Gage Lee, 13, both of Forest, Miss., work in tandem to remove a branch Friday, April 19, 2019, in Morton, Miss., as residents begin their cleanup from Thursday's possible tornado touchdown that heavily damaged many homes. Strong storms again roared across the South on Thursday, topping trees and leaving a variety of damage in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. (AP PhotoRogelio V. Solis)

The threat on Friday shifted farther east, where tornado warnings covered parts of northeast Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia, where four suspected tornado touchdowns were reported Friday night. Twisters touched down in Reston, Fredericks Hall, Barham and Forksville. Homes and small structures were damaged, but no injuries were immediately reported.

The national Storm Prediction Center said 9.7 million people in the Carolinas and Virginia were at a moderate risk of severe weather. The region includes the Charlotte, North Carolina metro area.

Torrential downpours, large hail and a few tornadoes were among the hazards, the National Weather Service in Raleigh, North Carolina, warned.

A bus that was taken by a tornado that touched down in Franklin County, Va., is viewed from Fishburn Mountiain Road, Friday, April 19, 2019. (Heather RousseauThe Roanoke Times via AP)

Radar readings appeared to show a tornado formed in western Virginia's Franklin County, south of Roanoke, though damage on the ground still must be assessed, said National Weather Service Meteorologist Phil Hysell. In South Carolina, authorities urged motorists to avoid part of Interstate 26 — the main artery from Upstate through Columbia and all the way to Charleston — because downed trees had left the roadway scattered with debris.

In Georgia, the storm system knocked down trees, caused flooding and cut off power to tens of thousands of people.

A tree came down on an apartment complex in an Atlanta suburb, but only one person reported a minor injury and was treated at the scene, Gwinnett County fire spokesman Capt. Tommy Rutledge told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Delores Anderson, 63, center left, looks toward the wreckage of her house while comforted by friends and neighbors who came to support and help pull belongings from her home after it was destroyed by a tornado Friday, April 19, 2019, in Franklin County, Va. (Heather RousseauThe Roanoke Times via AP)

In Forsyth County northeast of Atlanta, three firefighters suffered minor injuries when their firetruck overturned during heavy rain and wind, Fire Department Division Chief Jason Shivers told the newspaper.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people cleaned up part of a central Mississippi town hit hard by a tornado on Thursday.

Volunteers and family members were swarming the north side of Morton, where the National Weather Service says a twister with winds as high as 132 mph (212 kph) hit a neighborhood. More than 20 homes were heavily damaged or destroyed. The town of 3,500 is about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Jackson.

Freda Jenkins looks around the remains of a friend's possible tornado damaged home Friday, April 19, 2019, in Morton, Miss. Strong storms again roared across the South on Thursday, topping trees and leaving a variety of damage in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. (AP PhotoRogelio V. Solis)

"When it stopped, there was nothing left," Morton resident Sharon Currie told WAPT-TV. "I was going, 'Oh my God. My house is gone.'"

Forecasters confirmed that 14 tornadoes had touched down in Mississippi and damage from the storm system was reported in at least 24 of the state's 82 counties. Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant declared a state of emergency — the second one he has declared in less than a week due to tornadoes.

Authorities on Friday reported a third storm-related death in the state. Freddie Mobley, 63, died while helping cut a tree that had fallen on a house, Lincoln County Coroner Clay McMorris told the Daily Leader of Brookhaven. Mobley had made a few cuts on the tree and backed away when the trunk shifted before he could move, Deputy Coroner Ricky Alford said.

Morton, Miss., residents take a visual tour of their storm damaged neighborhood, Friday, April 19, 2019. Strong storms again roared across the South on Thursday, topping trees and leaving a variety of damage in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. (AP PhotoRogelio V. Solis)

Two other people who were driving are being counted as storm-related deaths in Mississippi. A woman also died in Alabama when a tree fell on her mobile home Thursday.

A farm tractor is used to remove debris from a tornado damaged home, Friday, April 19, 2019, in Morton, Miss., as residents begin their cleanup from Thursday's possible tornado touchdown that heavily damaged many homes. (AP PhotoRogelio V. Solis)

Justus Harvey, 16, left, and his friend Gage Lee, 13, both of Forest, Miss., work in tandem to remove a branch Friday, April 19, 2019, in Morton, Miss., as residents begin their cleanup from Thursday's possible tornado touchdown that heavily damaged many homes. Strong storms again roared across the South on Thursday, topping trees and leaving a variety of damage in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. (AP PhotoRogelio V. Solis)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely didn’t order the death of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny in February, according to an official familiar with the determination.

While U.S. officials believe Putin was ultimately responsible for the death of Navalny, who endured brutal conditions during his confinement, the intelligence community has found “no smoking gun” that Putin was aware of the timing of Navalny's death — which came soon before the Russian president's reelection — or directly ordered it, according to the official.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.

Soon after Navalny’s death, U.S. President Joe Biden said Putin was ultimately responsible but did not accuse the Russian president of directly ordering it.

At the time, Biden said the U.S. did not know exactly what had happened to Navalny but that “there is no doubt” that his death “was the consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.”

Navalny, 47, Russia’s best-known opposition politician and Putin’s most persistent foe, died Feb. 16 in a remote penal colony above the Arctic Circle while serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges that he rejected as politically motivated.

He had been behind bars since January 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany, where he had been recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.

Russian officials have said only that Navalny died of natural causes and have vehemently denied involvement both in the poisoning and in his death.

In March, a month after Navalny’s death, Putin won a landslide reelection for a fifth term, an outcome that was never in doubt.

The Wall Street Journal first reported about the U.S. intelligence determination.

FILE - Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny gestures while speaking during his interview to the Associated Press in Moscow, Russia on Dec. 18, 2017. U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely didn't order the death of Navalny, the imprisoned opposition leader, in February of 2024. An official says the U.S. intelligence community has found "no smoking gun" that Putin was aware of the timing of Navalny's death or directly ordered it. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)