US Families Seek Shelter as Tornadoes and Severe Weather Strike

A family in Tennessee narrowly escaped disaster when a tornado demolished their home, finding refuge in an underground bunker as violent storms wreaked havoc across the United States.

They were among nearly 200 million Americans facing severe weather conditions in recent days, resulting in widespread power outages and travel disruptions.

On Monday, the turbulent weather led to the cancellation of over 4,700 flights, with further cancellations continuing into Tuesday as storms battered the eastern part of the country, causing chaos in several major cities.

The weekend saw tumultuous weather sweeping through the eastern U.S., blanketing sections of the Midwest in snow and leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. Tornadoes struck Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, and Arkansas, adding to the devastation.

In Bonnertown, Tennessee, the family whose home was obliterated took shelter in their bunker after an EF1 tornado hit shortly after 11 p.m. on Sunday night.

At least ten homes and one business was damaged after several structures were pushed off their foundations. 

Severe weather then continued into Monday with more than 95 million people from the Florida Panhandle through Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC, Delaware, eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and parts of New York under tornado watches. 

Parts of the Eastern Seaboard remained under an enhanced storm risk heading into Tuesday with gusts of up to 55mph, torrential rain and powerful thunderstorms predicted.

A family in Bonnertown, Tennessee was forced to cower in a bunker as a tornado leveled their home on Sunday night

An EF0 tornado touched down in Charlotte, North Carolina on Monday

The tornado uprooted trees and caused damage to several homes in the city

At least one twister was confirmed to have struck in Charlotte, North Carolina, where it ripped part of the roof off a longtime local business, according to Spectrum Local.

The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado hit at around 9.40am, bringing wind speeds estimated at 85 mph and damaging the roof of Superior Mechanical Systems.

High winds on Monday in Washington DC also forced the federal government to tell employees to go home early as both the House and Senate postponed votes.

Elsewhere, torrential rains flooded homes and washed out roads in Hawaii, while dry and windy conditions were charging the largest wildfire in Nebraska’s history.   

Blizzard conditions also continued in the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes after the storm walloped parts of Wisconsin and Michigan with several feet of snow.

Since Saturday, nearly three feet has fallen in the northern Wisconsin town of Mountain, while in Minnesota 700 vehicles veered off the road in the storm causing at least one fatal crash.

‘Those numbers are pretty high, but they’re extremely high when you consider how many roads were closed,’ Sgt. Troy Christianson with the Minnesota State Patrol told KEYC on Monday.

‘I-90 and I-35 were just opened up this morning, but otherwise they were closed the majority of the weekend.’

Yet further south, in Nebraska, dry and windy conditions were charging the largest wildfire in the state’s history, with three different blazes consuming more than 1,140 square miles of mostly grassland on Monday.

The East Coast is braced for more stormy weather heading into Tuesday

Another tornado snapped a utility pole off its base in Lexington, Alabama on Monday

Tornado damage is pictured in Bonnertown, Tennessee on Monday 

A Lauderdale County Road Department employee makes his way through downed trees while using a chainsaw in Lexington, Alabama on Monday

A car drove through a flooded lane in Cabin John, Maryland on Monday

Visitors take cover during heavy rain near the US Capitol as representatives and senators delayed votes

A woman is seen walking by the Brooklyn Bridge in the fog and rain on Monday

‘Mother Nature is throwing a doozy at us,’ Governor Jim Pillen said. 

As the storm then spread east, officials in New York City warned that strong winds could knock down tree limbs. 

Four people, including a child, also died Monday afternoon in New York City after a fire in a three-story apartment building spread during heavy winds.

Meanwhile in Hawaii unrelenting rains triggered landslides, washing away roads and flooding homes and farmland.

All of Hawaii’s islands had spots with more than 15 inches of rain, while parts of Maui were overwhelmed with double that amount, the National Weather Service said.

Konawaena High School’s brand new football and track and field stadium even slid down a hill, as one longtime resident said the area faced the worst flooding she has seen in 20 years.

While the worst of the storm has passed, more heavy rain is expected later this week.

 Maui Mayor Richard Bissen said there were no reports of injuries or deaths and crews were assessing damage. 

Debris is seen covering a beach in Kihei, Hawaii on Sunday

Spectators gathered near a collapsed roads following severe storms on Maui on Sunday

Amid the wild weather conditions, more than 4,700 flights were canceled Monday as the Federal Aviation Administration ordered ground stops at Hartsfield-Jackson and Charlotte Douglas International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia and ground delays at JFK International Airport in New York and Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.

Hundreds of flights were still canceled or delayed on Tuesday as the dangerous weather passed but a partial government shutdown strained screener traffic. 

More than 590 flights scheduled to fly into, out of or within the U.S. have been called off as of early Tuesday, and over 780 were delayed, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware.

At the same time, more than 596,000 Americans remained without power early Tuesday, primarily in Michigan and Pennsylvania, according to PowerOutage.us. 

But the wild weather conditions are not yet over, with a heat dome over the Southwest expected to push temperatures well into the triple digits in parts, particularly in Arizona.

California is also heating up and the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento will see temperatures pushing toward 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

‘This is technically still winter,’ LA Mayor Karen Bass said Monday. ‘This is not normal for March, obviously, but it is a sign of how climate change is impacting our city.’

Mud is seen covering a street in Maui on Sunday

While temperatures are expected to reach 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the threat of wildfires around Los Angeles is relatively low because winds will be light.

‘This is a heat wave that we have not seen before in recorded history in the Southwest,’ said AccuWeather meteorologist Dan DePodwin. 

Phoenix is expected to have five straight days of triple digit temperatures this week – only once before, in 1988, has the city recorded a 100 degree Fahrenheit day in March, he noted.