Tornado knocks vehicles around in N. Carolina, kills 1

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — Authorities began combing through the wreckage Friday caused by a reported tornado that killed one person and injured three others in central North Carolina.

A possible tornado touched down on the outskirts of Greensboro late Thursday as severe storms swept across the Southeast, damaging homes and businesses in at least three other states.

One person was killed in a small truck that overturned in a parking lot west of Greensboro, said Guilford County emergency services director Alan Perdue. He said three others were injured, one when the storm knocked down a wall at a distributing business, and that authorities were looking for any others in an industrial park on the edge of town.

Michelle Brock, assistant coordinator for Forsyth County emergency management, said several homes in the Clemmons area, just west of Winston-Salem, were heavily damaged and a number of downed trees were causing problems. She said firefighters rescued five people because of flooding in Winston-Salem and that high water had displaced about 10 people.

Davie County Manager Terry Bralley said four or five homes were severely damaged by the storm but no one was badly injured.

“We were lucky,” Bralley said.

Earlier in the day, an apparent tornado also wrecked a shopping area in Mississippi and strong winds flipped a mobile home in Alabama. In south-central Tennessee, at least four homes and a few barns were damaged.

The storm left numerous trees and power lines down, some on top of homes.

The North Carolina Highway Patrol said the storm blew several tractor-trailers off Interstate 40 but could not confirm the number.

Storms also ripped through Virginia late Thursday and early Friday, damaging homes and threatening to flood some areas.

Between 50 to 60 homes in northeastern Virginia were damaged, Stafford Fire and Rescue spokesman Lt. Mark Stone told The Free Lance-Star of Fredericksburg. Dozens of residents were taken to a temporary shelter at a middle school.

Portions of northern and central Virginia and southern Maryland were under a flood warning Friday morning.

Associated Press writer Chris Talbott in Jackson, Miss., and Jack Jones in Columbia, S.C., contributed to this report.

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