Storms rip down power lines in Tennessee
Knoxville, Tennessee, utilities officials warned that it may be days before power is fully restored after storms ripped down electricity lines.
Around 40,000 customers were without power there after extensive damage.
There were also outages in Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia today, according to the tracking website poweroutage.us, as severe storms have hit were expected to strike the East Coast and the Southeast. Over 144,000 Georgia customers were without power, according to the website.
More than 1,000 flights canceled
Airports from New York and Washington, D.C., to Georgia canceled more than 1,000 flights today, with Atlanta’s major airport topping the list of scrapped flights, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport had 372 flights canceled, the website showed.
Arrivals and departures were also canceled at Reagan National near Washington; LaGuardia, JFK and Newark in the New York City region; and Philadelphia International, according to FlightAware.
Weather postpones Phillies home game; stadium hosting Pink on weather watch
The Philadelphia Phillies will not host the Washington Nationals tonight after the game was postponed because of weather, while in the Washington area, a venue scheduled to host musician Pink said it was watching developments.
The Phillies announced the postponed game will be made up at 4:05 p.m. Tuesday.
Earlier today, Nationals Park tweeted that it would be monitoring weather conditions. “Get The Party Started” singer Pink was scheduled to perform there tonight.
Over 150 wind reports from Southeast to Pennsylvania
There have been more than 150 wind reports in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic states, according to the National Weather Service.
There were 65-mph winds reported in Tennessee, trees and power lines were downed in West Virginia, and power poles were reported down in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, according to the weather service’s storm reports website.
Those are reports and are not considered confirmed, but some are made by trained spotters and other authorities. The data is preliminary, the agency cautions.
Strong front from Ohio Valley fueling East Coast weather
A strong front moving east is helping to fuel the thunderstorms and other severe weather, the National Weather Service said.
The severe weather threat was called “anomalously large across the Southeast, Appalachians and Mid-Atlantic this afternoon/evening,” it said.
“Damaging wind gusts, large hail and tornadoes are all possible across these areas Monday afternoon/evening with the greatest threat will likely be from damaging winds,” the weather service said.
Flight disruptions were expected in East Coast airports, as well as in Atlanta, according to the FAA.
States and cities in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast warn residents
New York City and the state, and Philadelphia and Washington D.C., were among those warning of high winds, possible flooding and power outages.
“I urge all New Yorkers to watch the weather forecast closely this week and prepare to act, if necessary, to protect yourself and others,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochu said today.
New York City emergency management officials warned residents of the risk of flash flooding and gave instructions “in the very low chance of a tornado.”
The New York City region could get 3 inches of rain through tonight, the weather service said.
Philadelphia officials, too, said there was a tornado watch and urged people to watch forecasts.
D.C.-area federal workers told to leave early amid weather threat
Federal workers in the Washington, D.C., area were told to leave work by 3 p.m. Monday because of the threat of severe weather, the Office of Personnel Management said.
33 million under tornado watches in East, thunderstorm watch for over 20 million in Southeast
Severe weather watches covered almost the entire East Coast from Georgia and the Carolinas to upstate New York, as forecasters warned of severe weather and travel disruptions.
Tornado watches covered more than 33 million people from North Carolina and part of Tennessee and into New York state, according to the weather service.
Severe thunderstorm watches covered the Southeast, including in Atlanta and Georgia. There were 23 milion people under thunderstorm watches across the U.S.
FAA: Flights will likely have to be paused at East Coast airports
The FAA Monday afternoon warned that flights will likely have to be paused at East Coast airports, as well as in Atlanta, because of severe weather.
“The FAA is re-routing aircraft around the storms heading to the East Coast as much as possible. Soon we will likely have to pause departures in and out of East Coast airports including NYC, Philly, DC, Charlotte and Atlanta,” the federal agency said on social media.