A 15-year-old teenager died this Monday in South Carolina and a 28-year-old died in Alabama, as a result of the extreme weather that hits the South and East of the United States. Some 50 million people were under alert for severe storms and tornadoes, more than 1,000 flights were canceled and some 900,000 users were left without power due to weather conditions, authorities reported.
A “preliminary investigation shows that a large tree fell and struck” a teenager, whose identity has not been released, as he was getting out of a vehicle in the city of Anderson, South Carolina, the County Coroner’s Office said in a statement. Anderson, who attributed the death to weather conditions.
The other victim was reported in Alabama, where police said a 28-year-old man was struck by lightning at an industrial park in the city of Florence, located in Lauderdale County, an area that was under warning for severe storms. The young man was not identified at the request of his family, authorities said in a statement.
The National Weather Service explained that a strong front moving to the east was fueling the thunderstorms and severe weather that would include “damaging wind gusts, large hail, and tornadoes.”
In Maryland, 33 adults and 14 children were trapped in vehicles after severe weather downed about 30 power line poles in the afternoon, local authorities said. People were able to be rescued at night and transferred to a school where they were being cared for.