Potent thunderstorms have left more than 200,000 people without power across the southern United States — and fierce winds are expected to wallop parts of several states as new storms form Thursday, forecasters said.
Fallen trees ripped down power lines and crashed into buildings along a line from Texas to Alabama overnight and into Thursday morning, the national Storm Prediction Center reported. A few isolated tornadoes were reported, damaging roofs in the northeast Texas city of Greenville.
More than 70,000 homes and businesses are without power in Arkansas, and more than 30,000 outages each are reported in Texas, Louisiana and Alabama, where crews are out working to remove toppled trees and clear blocked roads.
A man in a home along High St. waits for rescuers to come back for him after overnight thunderstorms flooded much of Westville, N.J. on Thursday, June 20, 2019. (Elizabeth RobertsonThe Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)
The storms were moving eastward, with more severe weather possible Thursday in Alabama and Georgia all the way up the Eastern Seaboard to Pennsylvania, forecasters said.
An area that includes North and South Carolina, eastern Georgia and southern Virginia will see an enhanced risk of wind damage from powerful Thursday afternoon storms, the Storm Prediction Center said. The region is home to 15.6 million people and includes Charlotte, North Carolina.
Downburst winds — strong winds that descend from a thunderstorms and spread out when they hit the ground — appear to be the greatest threat in this area Thursday, said Dan Miller, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Columbia, South Carolina.
Officials and residents gather on the edge of the floodwaters submerging Broadway in Westville, N.J. Thursday, June 20, 2019. Severe storms containing heavy rains and strong winds spurred flooding across southern New Jersey, disrupting travel and damaging some property. (AP PhotoMatt Rourke)
Such winds hold the potential for serious damage, such as bringing trees and powerlines down and tearing into the shingles and siding on homes, he said.
"It's expected to all come together this afternoon and early evening," Miller said Thursday morning.
Thursday afternoon will also bring the risk of some tornadoes and very large hail to flood-weary residents of the Missouri River Valley in the Midwest, forecasters said.
Floodwaters partially submerge vehicles on Broadway in Westville, N.J. Thursday, June 20, 2019. Severe storms containing heavy rains and strong winds spurred flooding across southern New Jersey, disrupting travel and damaging some property. (AP PhotoMatt Rourke)
Flooding already was causing travel problems, flooding commuter train stations and forcing service to be suspended between Philadelphia and New Jersey. The Delaware River was overflowing its banks in places, and people were being rescued from high water.
A supermarket roof collapsed in suburban Philadelphia, causing sprinkler system pipes to break and send water gushing down.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian court on Friday ordered the detention of the country’s farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation, while Kyiv security officials assessed how they can recover lost battlefield momentum in the war against Russia.
Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that Agriculture Minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days, but he was released after paying bail of 75 million hryvnias ($1.77 million), a statement said.
Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau suspects Solskyi headed an organized crime group that between 2017 and 2021 unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias ($6.85 million) and attempted to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias ($4.47 million).
Ukraine is trying to root out corruption that has long dogged the country. A dragnet over the past two years has seen Ukraine’s defense minister, top prosecutor, intelligence chief and other senior officials lose their jobs.
That has caused embarrassment and unease as Ukraine receives tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid to help fight Russia’s army, and the European Union and NATO have demanded widespread anti-graft measures before Kyiv can realize its ambition of joining the blocs.
In Ukraine's capital, doctors and ambulance crews evacuated patients from a children’s hospital on Friday after a video circulated online saying Russia planned to attack it.
Parents hefting bags of clothes, toys and food carried toddlers and led young children from the Kyiv City Children’s Hospital No. 1 on the outskirts of the city. Medics helped them into a fleet of waiting ambulances to be transported to other facilities.
In the video, a security official from Russian ally Belarus alleged that military personnel were based in the hospital. Kyiv city authorities said that the claim was “a lie and provocation.”
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that civic authorities were awaiting an assessment from security services before deciding when it was safe to reopen the hospital.
“We cannot risk the lives of our children,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold online talks Friday with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which has been the key international organization coordinating the delivery of weapons and other aid to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said late Thursday that the meeting would discuss how to turn around Ukraine’s fortunes on the battlefield. The Kremlin’s forces have gained an edge over Kyiv’s army in recent months as Ukraine grappled with a shortage of ammunition and troops.
Russia, despite sustaining high losses, has been taking control of small settlements as part of its effort to drive deeper into eastern Ukraine after capturing the city of Avdiivka in February, the U.K. defense ministry said Friday.
It’s been slow going for the Kremlin’s troops in eastern Ukraine and is likely to stay that way, according to the Institute for the Study of War. However, the key hilltop town of Chasiv Yar is vulnerable to the Russian onslaught, which is using glide bombs — powerful Soviet-era weapons that were originally unguided but have been retrofitted with a navigational targeting system — that obliterate targets.
“Russian forces do pose a credible threat of seizing Chasiv Yar, although they may not be able to do so rapidly,” the Washington-based think tank said late Thursday.
It added that Russian commanders are likely seeking to advance as much as possible before the arrival in the coming weeks and months of new U.S. military aid, which was held up for six months by political differences in Congress.
While that U.S. help wasn’t forthcoming, Ukraine’s European partners didn’t pick up the slack, according to German’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks Ukraine support.
“The European aid in recent months is nowhere near enough to fill the gap left by the lack of U.S. assistance, particularly in the area of ammunition and artillery shells,” it said in a report Thursday.
Ukraine is making a broad effort to take back the initiative in the war after more than two years of fighting. It plans to manufacture more of its own weapons in the future, and is clamping down on young people avoiding conscription, though it will take time to process and train any new recruits.
Jill Lawless contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Ukrainian young acting student Gleb Batonskiy plays piano in a public park in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
