Wartburg, Tennessee (AP) – Two tornadoes moved through East Tennessee, leaving a dead mother and daughter and hurting three other people, authorities said on Friday.

A mother and a daughter of the same home were killed when the storm went through the scarcely populated communities of Deer Lodge and Sunbright in Morgan County on Thursday night, according to a position on the social networks of the emergency management agency of the emergency management of the emergency management of County.

More details about the three injured people were not immediately released.

Tennessee road patrol soldiers were on the site on Friday morning helping to ensure structures that were damaged or destroyed, said Captain Stacey Heatherly in an email. The authorities did not believe someone was still missing, Heatherly said.

Preliminary storm surveys published on Friday determined that two tornadoes arrived in the region on Thursday, said the National Meteorological Service Office in Morristown. The Tornado in Deer Lodge in Morgan County had maximum winds of 135 mph (217 kph) and was described as an EF2, which is considered “significant” on the improved scale of Fujita. The Tornado in Thorn Hill in Grainger County had maximum winds of 115 mph (185 kph) and received an EF1 rating.

Governor Bill Lee said in a statement on Friday that he and his wife, Maria, prayed for those affected by the storm. The governor traveled to Morgan County on Friday to examine the damage, noting that he spoke with a man who lost his daughter and home.

“It’s hard to see these people and see what they face today,” Lee told reporters. “We are here to encourage them, wanting them to be seen and listened to.”

Tennessee’s road patrol said on social networks that the soldiers were in Morgan County ensuring the safety of residents and evaluation and help with the damage of the structure.

The Morgan County School District said on its website that schools would be closed on Friday due to “significant damage for tornadoes in parts of our county.”

In addition, the storm knocked down the trees and damaged several structures in the Thorn Hill area of ​​Grainger County, but there were no injuries or deaths there, said County Management Director Jeffrey Atkins on the phone.

Thursday’s storm arrives almost a year after a fatal tornado landed in an area of ​​the Northeast of Tennessee that included Morgan County. The tornado damaged a funeral and a house in the city of Sunbright.

Emergency officials have repeatedly said that Tennessee experiences more turned at night than any other state in the United States, this makes it difficult to notice the public, which is probably asleep and cannot see that the storms are coming.

The officials of the Tennessee emergency management agency added that other counties affected by the storm include Fentress, Jackson, Overton, Putnam and Sevier. Meanwhile, the authorities continued to warn about the possible extreme climate throughout the south on Friday, with warnings of floods issued in Arkansas, Kentucky and Virginia Occidental.

Also on Friday, communities in Kentucky and Virginia Occidental continued to cleanse floods in low areas caused by severe electric storms on Thursday. Some streams and rivers remained slightly above the flood stage on Friday.

According to the National Meteorological Service, Tennessee experienced 19 tornadoes last year that resulted in a death. In 2023, Tennessee saw 40 tornadoes that resulted in 17 deaths. While most Tennessee’s tornado activity takes place in spring, it is not unusual for the number of tornadoes to begin to increase in February.

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Topics Catastroph Natural Disaster Flood Tennessee Wind Storm