After tornadoes in other states | Storms blow across Florida and Mississippi

(Atlanta) Powerful storms with high, damaging winds threatened several southeastern U.S. states Friday, while residents in other areas cleaned up debris from deadly weather that sparked tornadoes in Michigan, Tennessee and other states.

The storms hit Tallahassee, Florida, where many trees were toppled around the state capital, authorities said Friday. Gusts of 70 mph were recorded by a weather station near the state Capitol complex, the National Weather Service said. Florida State University announced its campuses in Tallahassee were closed Friday due to inclement weather. Non-essential personnel, students and visitors should avoid Tallahassee campuses until further notice, the university said in a social media post.

The city of Tallahassee indicated on the social media platform The city said more than 66,000 customers are without power and 11 substations were damaged by the storm.

“It is possible that the restoration will take the entire weekend,” warns the press release.

Severe thunderstorms are also expected in Alabama, near Florida, where gusts could bring down tree branches, the weather service said.

In Mississippi’s capital, Jackson, authorities on Friday asked residents to conserve water after a power outage at one of the main water treatment plants. JXN Water, the local water company, said in a statement that customers can expect reduced water pressure while workers assess damage from storms that passed through the area overnight.

The weather service warned that Hickory Hills and surrounding areas near the coast were likely to experience severe weather Friday morning and to expect hailstones that could damage vehicles.

More than 260,000 homes and businesses across the South, from Mississippi to North Carolina, were without power Friday morning, according to the tracking website poweroutage.us. More than half of them were in Florida, where more than 165,000 customers were without light and air conditioning.

Several tornado warnings and watches were issued by the National Weather Service Friday morning, but they were lifted by midday. As of Monday, 39 states are under threat of severe weather and at least four people have died. As of Wednesday and Thursday, about 220 million people were at risk of severe weather, according to Matthew Elliott, a forecaster at the Storm Prediction Center.

The weather follows a stormy April in which the United States experienced 300 confirmed tornadoes, the second highest number ever recorded for that month and the most since 2011.

A storm was blamed for the death of a 22-year-old man who was riding in a car in Claiborne County, north of Knoxville, authorities said. A second person was killed south of Nashville, in Columbia, the seat of Maury County, where a tornado with winds of 225 kilometers per hour damaged or destroyed more than 100 homes.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said the woman who died in Maury County was in a mobile home that was thrown several feet into a wooded area. Mr. Lee visited emergency and Tennessee Department of Transportation officials in the storm-affected region Thursday.

Torrential rain led to flash flooding and water rescues northeast of Nashville, and the weather service issued a tornado warning, its highest alert level, for surrounding areas.

A 10-year-old boy was seriously injured in Christiana, southeast of Nashville, when he got caught in a storm drain and was swept beneath the streets while playing with others children while adults cleared the debris, her father, Rutherford County Schools Superintendent Jimmy Sullivan, said on social media.

The boy, Asher, emerged in a drainage ditch and survived after receiving CPR, “but the damage is extensive,” Mr. Sullivan posted on Facebook, asking for prayers.

“Asher needs a miracle,” Mr. Sullivan wrote.

Dozens of people gathered at school district offices for a prayer vigil Thursday. They bowed their heads and closed their eyes in prayer, and sang “Amazing Grace” together.

Schools were closed Thursday and Friday in Rutherford and Maury. In Georgia, some districts north of Atlanta canceled in-person classes or delayed class start times due to overnight storm damage, including trees falling on homes and vehicles in the area of Clarkesville. No injuries were reported.

The Plains and Midwest have been hit by tornadoes this spring.