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ATLANTA (AP) -- Powerful storms rumbled over parts of the U.S. Southeast on Thursday, prompting a few tornado warnings, causing flash flooding, and delaying the start of one of the world's biggest sporting events, in Georgia.
The storm system, which has already been blamed for at least one death in Mississippi, demolished buildings and flooded streets in the New Orleans area Wednesday. It continued to spawn flash flood and tornado warnings in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina on Thursday.
More than 100,000 customers lacked power Thursday afternoon nationwide. That included more than 60,000 in Louisiana, which was hit hard by storms Wednesday, according to PowerOutage.us.
Now, forecasters say parts of Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia will be near the bull's-eye of a new area of concern Thursday. Those areas could see some tornadoes, damaging winds and large hail, according to the latest outlooks from the Storm Prediction Center.
The entire state of Ohio was under a flood watch Thursday afternoon. The ground there is already saturated with the potential for heavy rainfall on the way, said James Gibson, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Ohio.
Public school students in at least a dozen counties in West Virginia were sent home early Thursday due to the arriving storms. Southern West Virginia was hit by 10 tornadoes April 2.
It was a record for one day in the state, which gets two tornadoes in an average year.