RALEIGH, N.C. — Tropical Depression Fred swirled into the northeastern U.S. on Wednesday, unleashing heavy rains and threatening to unleash mudslides and flash floods in upstate New York after closing interstate highways in the lower Appalachians. Tornado watches remained in effect for mountainous areas of Virginia and the Carolinas.
Unconfirmed tornados unleashed by the stormy weather already caused damage in places in Georgia and North Carolina on Tuesday as Fred moved north, well inland from the coastal areas that usually bear the brunt of tropical weather. One death was reported — a Las Vegas man whose car hydroplaned and flipped into a ditch near Panama City, Florida, hours after the storm moved ashore, Florida Highway Patrol said.
About 25,000 customers were without power early Wednesday according to the utility tracker poweroutage.us, most of them in West Virginia and North Carolina, where steady downpours swelled waterways and washed rocks and mud onto highways. Multiple landslides closed Interstate 19 through the Nantahala Gorge, according to the North Carolina transportation department.
The National Hurricane Center said Fred's remnants moved into Pennsylvania by midday on Wednesday, and although the post-tropical cyclone no longer had much of a swirling center, it was still capable of spawning tornadoes and other dangerous weather.
Schools were closed and people evacuated along three rain-swollen rivers in far eastern Tennessee. "The areas around the Pigeon, French Broad and Nolichucky Rivers have become unsafe,” said the order from Cocke County Mayor Crystal Ottinger, which was posted to Facebook late Tuesday by the Cocke County Emergency Management Agency. Four shelters were opened for people who needed a place to go.
Schools in Lincoln County, West Virginia also canceled classes Wednesday due to high water from heavy rains.
And in North Carolina, water rescues were reported in Canton, a town west of Asheville that was hit hard by flooding. A rescue team from the Wilmington area, which came from eastern North Carolina to help, performed water rescues of 13 adults and two children in the Canton area, New Hanover County Fire Rescue said on its Twitter feed. Photos posted by the team showed rescue personnel in bright yellow vests staging rafts with outboard motors at the edge of yards that were submerged with muddy water up to the front doors of multiple homes.
As many as 14 possible tornadoes were reported across Georgia and the Carolinas on Tuesday, according to the weather service. Transylvania County, North Carolina, declared a state of emergency after 10 inches (25 centimeters) fell, sending mud and rock onto highways, flooding roads and destroying at least one home.
Meanwhile, Grace became a hurricane after unleashing torrential rain on earthquake-damaged Haiti. Grace's sustained winds grew to 75 mph (120 kph) Wednesday as it moved away from the Cayman Islands, and was expected to strengthen before hitting Mexico's Yucatan peninsula Thursday morning. A hurricane warning was in effect for the Yucatan from Cancun to Punta Herrero, including Cozumel.
Tropical Storm Henri, meanwhile, moved toward the U.S. coast, and forecasters said it's now expected to become a hurricane by the weekend, path that's more likely to affect the northeastern U.S. states. On Wednesday, its top sustained winds were holding steady at 65 mph (100 kph), but the hurricane center warned that life-threatening ocean swells could affect East Coast beaches later this week.
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Contributors include Associated Press writers Jeff Amy in Atlanta and Bryan Gallion in Raleigh, North Carolina.