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Severe storms delay, cancel thousands of flights along East Coast

The storm system killed at least three people this week. Photo courtesy National Weather Service
The storm system killed at least three people this week. Photo courtesy National Weather Service

April 19 (UPI) -- A deadly storm system that swept through the South and parts of the Midwest earlier this week caused the cancellation or delay of thousands of flights on the East Coast on Friday.

Flight tracking website FlightAware said there were 4,754 flights into or out of the United States that were delayed and 1,898 canceled. Airports in Charlotte, N.C., Newark, N.J., Boston, Orlando, Fla., and Miami had among the most flight troubles at the start of the East. 

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The system produced tornadoes, strong winds and heavy rains from the Ohio Valley to the central Gulf Coast this week. One man died in Mississippi when his vehicle hit a tree. An Alabama woman was killed Thursday night when a tree fell on her mobile home. Another person died in a crash near Gillsburg, Miss.

The storm cut power to communities in Alabama, Louisiana and Texas late Thursday, and the National Weather Service confirmed two tornadoes touched down in Dade County, Mo.

"Friday has the potential to bring an elevated risk of severe weather, including a few storms with tornadoes and large hail to areas in the Carolinas," AccuWeather meteorologist Eddie Walker said.

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The storms Friday could stretch from Washington, D.C.,to the Florida peninsula and could produce severe rain in parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New Jersey and New York.

"Severe thunderstorms with considerable potential for producing damaging wind gusts and a few tornadoes are expected across much of the southern through mid-Atlantic Coast region, particularly across the Carolinas into southern Virginia late this afternoon and evening," the National Weather Service said Friday.

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