At least three people were killed after a hurricane passed through a coastal town in North Carolina, while millions of people in Texas were kept in the dark on Tuesday morning amid freezing temperatures.
The tornado, which authorities said had injured at least 10, struck shortly after midnight Tuesday in southeastern Brunswick, near Greystown, in the Ocean Ridge Plantation community. Media reported that the meteor destroyed homes and left thousands of people without electricity by dropping power lines and breaking trees in half.
“It’s something we’ve never seen before. A lot of damage. It’s going to be a long recovery,” Brunswick Police Chief John Ingram said at a news conference Tuesday morning.
The Brunswick County Emergency Management Agency said people were trapped in homes. Ingram said the missing are being searched and the process will double during the day. He asked people to avoid the area as crews cleared the streets and searched for victims.
Meanwhile, nearly 4 million homes and businesses were still without power Tuesday morning in Texas, with temperatures dropping below 10 degrees Fahrenheit (-12 degrees Celsius). More than 250,000 people were left without power in parts of the Appalachians and a quarter of a million others without power after a snowstorm in northwestern Oregon, according to poweroutage.us, which monitors blackout reports.
In Houston, a woman and a girl died in a lost home, due to alleged carbon monoxide poisoning from a running car in an attached garage, according to police.
