A large part of the country didn't have to dream of a white Christmas. It got one. Mike Seidel of The Weather Channel reports.
By NBC News staff and wire reports
A major storm that unleashed heavy snow and deadly winds on the nation’s midsection on Christmas Day was moving across the East Coast Wednesday, bringing more wintry conditions and the risk of new tornadoes.
Snow was expected across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, with northern Ohio, northern Pennsylvania and southern New York set to bear the brunt, according to Weather Channel meteorologist Guy Walton.
Further south, driving rain and thunderstorms were expected throughout the southeast Atlantic, with the tornado threat highest in the eastern Carolinas, according to the national Storm Prediction Center.
Read more at Weather.com
Yet more snow is forecast for Thursday in the Northeast to the west and north of the I-95 corridor Thursday into northern New England, with upwards of one foot possible.
The storm claimed three lives on Tuesday: Wind-toppled trees killed a pickup truck driver near Houston, Texas, and a 53-year-old man in north Louisiana, while NBC affiliate KJRH reported that a 28-year-old woman was killed in a crash on a snowy highway near Fairview, Oklahoma.
Witnesses report significant storm damage in Mobile, Alabama. WPMI's John Dzenitis reports.
Hundreds of flights delayed, cancelled as holiday storms travel across country
An estimated 34 tornadoes battered southern states – a record number for Christmas Day, according to the Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore. Some were captured on dramatic home videos.
A state of emergency was declared in Mississippi, where homes, roads and businesses were damaged in at least nine counties.
At one point late Tuesday, holiday celebrations were darkened for at least 150,000 customers in Alabama and a further 21,500 in Arkansas, according to Arkansas Entenergy and Alabama Power.
The worst of the tornadoes hit Tuesday afternoon in Mobile, Ala., where Rick Cauley's family was hosting relatives for Christmas.
View more videos at: http://nbcdfw.com.
Not taking any chances, he and his wife, Ashley, hustled everyone down the block to take shelter at the athletic field house at Mobile's Murphy High School in Mobile.
It turns out, that wasn't the place to head.
"As luck would have it, that's where the tornado hit," Cauley told The Associated Press. "The pressure dropped and the ears started popping and it got crazy for a second." They were all fine, though the school was damaged, as were a church and several homes, but officials say no one was seriously injured.
Read more at weather.com
"The people of Alabama are strong," state governor Robert Bentley said in a statement released by his office. "We will recover together. First responders are doing a tremendous job helping people in areas impacted by the storms, and those efforts will continue."
The statement added: "I also want to offer my prayers for everyone impacted by these storms. We will work on the state level to do everything we can to help communities across the state."
First responders told NBCDFW.com they responded to 71 crashes in Forth Worth, Texas between 5 p.m. and 9:50 p.m. Tuesday as slush turned to ice, making roads treacherous.
NBCDFW.com: White Christmas brings delays, cancellations to DFW airport
In Indianapolis, Mayor Greg Ballard ordered "non-essential" workers to stay home Wednesday.
Some places didn't just get a white Christmas, they set daily snowfall records. Cantore told NBC News that Little Rock, Ark. had its snowiest day ever with accumulation of nine inches.
Greg Forbes, a meteorologist with The Weather Channel, said thunderstorms with damaging winds and hail would make their way across the Deep South into Wednesday.
By the time it leaves the New England coast Friday, the storm will have left snow from coast to coast.
The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More content from NBCNews.com:
By NBC News staff and wire reports
A major storm that unleashed heavy snow and deadly winds on the nation’s midsection on Christmas Day was moving across the East Coast Wednesday, bringing more wintry conditions and the risk of new tornadoes.
Snow was expected across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, with northern Ohio, northern Pennsylvania and southern New York set to bear the brunt, according to Weather Channel meteorologist Guy Walton.
Further south, driving rain and thunderstorms were expected throughout the southeast Atlantic, with the tornado threat highest in the eastern Carolinas, according to the national Storm Prediction Center.
Read more at Weather.com
Yet more snow is forecast for Thursday in the Northeast to the west and north of the I-95 corridor Thursday into northern New England, with upwards of one foot possible.
The storm claimed three lives on Tuesday: Wind-toppled trees killed a pickup truck driver near Houston, Texas, and a 53-year-old man in north Louisiana, while NBC affiliate KJRH reported that a 28-year-old woman was killed in a crash on a snowy highway near Fairview, Oklahoma.
Witnesses report significant storm damage in Mobile, Alabama. WPMI's John Dzenitis reports.
Hundreds of flights delayed, cancelled as holiday storms travel across country
An estimated 34 tornadoes battered southern states – a record number for Christmas Day, according to the Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore. Some were captured on dramatic home videos.
A state of emergency was declared in Mississippi, where homes, roads and businesses were damaged in at least nine counties.
At one point late Tuesday, holiday celebrations were darkened for at least 150,000 customers in Alabama and a further 21,500 in Arkansas, according to Arkansas Entenergy and Alabama Power.
The worst of the tornadoes hit Tuesday afternoon in Mobile, Ala., where Rick Cauley's family was hosting relatives for Christmas.
View more videos at: http://nbcdfw.com.
Not taking any chances, he and his wife, Ashley, hustled everyone down the block to take shelter at the athletic field house at Mobile's Murphy High School in Mobile.
It turns out, that wasn't the place to head.
"As luck would have it, that's where the tornado hit," Cauley told The Associated Press. "The pressure dropped and the ears started popping and it got crazy for a second." They were all fine, though the school was damaged, as were a church and several homes, but officials say no one was seriously injured.
Read more at weather.com
"The people of Alabama are strong," state governor Robert Bentley said in a statement released by his office. "We will recover together. First responders are doing a tremendous job helping people in areas impacted by the storms, and those efforts will continue."
The statement added: "I also want to offer my prayers for everyone impacted by these storms. We will work on the state level to do everything we can to help communities across the state."
First responders told NBCDFW.com they responded to 71 crashes in Forth Worth, Texas between 5 p.m. and 9:50 p.m. Tuesday as slush turned to ice, making roads treacherous.
NBCDFW.com: White Christmas brings delays, cancellations to DFW airport
In Indianapolis, Mayor Greg Ballard ordered "non-essential" workers to stay home Wednesday.
Some places didn't just get a white Christmas, they set daily snowfall records. Cantore told NBC News that Little Rock, Ark. had its snowiest day ever with accumulation of nine inches.
Greg Forbes, a meteorologist with The Weather Channel, said thunderstorms with damaging winds and hail would make their way across the Deep South into Wednesday.
By the time it leaves the New England coast Friday, the storm will have left snow from coast to coast.
The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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