Tornadoes, power outages wallop Southeast

Nov. 21 (UPI) -- As many as 3,000 people in Mississippi were without power late Monday night after intense storms pushed through the state, according to Entergy Mississippi. 2,700 were in Copiah County.

Tornadoes hit the town of Cottonwood, Louisiana, where first responders and search and rescue crews pulled at least 3 people from their damaged homes. There were no deaths reported.

As many as 20 million people across the south face a threat of severe weather through the long Thanksgiving Day weekend, expected to be one of the busiest travel periods ever.

Parts of eastern Texas, northern Louisiana and central Mississippi were issued a storm risk level of between 3 and 5. Some areas faced potential tornado wind speeds of 111 mph or more.

Weather experts said there could be more tornadoes on the way.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Storm Prediction Center said the storms that did damage in Mississippi and Louisiana will produce more strong tornadoes, "damaging thunderstorm winds" and large hail in parts of east Texas and Louisiana.

The storm is then expected to move northeast, bringing rain to Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia by Tuesday morning, with snow farther north

Residents who live in Shreveport, Monroe and Bossier City, La., and Jackson and Hattiesburg, Miss., are in the areas that NOAA classified as "enhanced risk."

The storm may bring much needed moisture to areas that have been drought-stricken but is expected to be in amounts considered "excessive rainfall."

Exceptional drought, the most severe rating according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, extends to three quarters of Louisiana, and is officially the worst drought on record in the state. Half of Mississippi is also facing exceptional drought.

The storms bringing moisture to the Southeast and Northeast are also responsible for heavy mountain snowfall in parts of Utah, Nevada and Colorado.

The storms also brought strong winds. Mammoth, California, with an elevation of 10,000 feet, reported a gust of 144 mph.