After record cold, apparent tornadoes hit Fla., Miss.

Associated Press

Suspected tornados touched down in a rural town on Florida’s Panhandle and in Mississippi on Monday, destroying up to 10 homes, damaging a school, and sending fire crews out to investigate reports of residents trapped under rubble.

The tornadoes were part of a large winter storm system that was clobbering the eastern U.S. with snow, sleet, strong winds and rain, and which came on the heels of record-breaking low temperatures.

Officials in Florida and Mississippi were investigating reports of at least three possible tornadoes. One of the apparent twisters swept through the rural town of Century, in the northwest corner of Florida’s Panhandle, late Monday afternoon, destroying or significantly damaging about 10 homes, said Escambia County spokeswoman Joy Tsubooka.

Century is on the Florida-Alabama border about 45 miles north of Pensacola, Fla. Pensacola news station WEAR-TV showed a large, black funnel cloud touching down on a highway near the town, and images submitted by viewers to the news station’s Facebook page showed downed trees and damage to the exteriors of at least two homes.

Radar had indicated a tornado present in the storm system that moved over Century into Brewton, Ala., said Gene Jacobi with the National Weather Service in Mobile, Ala. He said the weather service would send crews out today to survey areas where damage and the funnel cloud had been reported.

In Mississippi, windows were blown out of cars and two gymnasiums and a library were damaged at a K-12 school in Wesson where children were in attendance when heavy thunderstorms and a possible tornado walloped at least 19 counties. There were no reports of any students injured, said Mississippi Department of Education spokeswoman Patrice Guilfoyle.

In the eastern U.S. on Monday, a day after record low temperatures plunged several states into a deep freeze, wet weather including snow, freezing rain and sleet were pummeling the region.

National Weather Service meteorologist Bruce Sullivan said there could be significant snowfall – 4 to 8 inches – in eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania and western New York. Some mountainous areas could get even more snow.

In Virginia, the state police asked motorists to delay any unnecessary travel until weather conditions could improve. By late afternoon, authorities were on the scene of 37 traffic crashes statewide, including a fatal crash in Fauquier County.

In North Carolina, light freezing rain, sleet and snow caused wrecks and closed schools and businesses. The National Weather Service said the precipitation was light Monday morning, but with temperatures in the 20s, it was freezing immediately on bridges, roads and other surfaces.

By Tuesday, when temperatures get higher, the rain and some runoff could cause flooding in some areas, Sullivan said.