Storms, power outages roll through South

A tornado hit a Kentucky manufacturing plant on Monday. STORY HIGHLIGHTSSevere weather forces Tennessee school officials to hold students at day's end147,000 are without power in GeorgiaThe dire weather will continue through early Tuesday morningRELATED TOPICSTornadoesNational Weather ServiceGeorgia Power Company (CNN) -- Severe storms pummeled much of the South late Monday, with high winds downing power lines and plunging thousands of households in the dark in several states.

The National Weather Service issued tornado watches from the Gulf Coast to the Carolinas.

It said it received nearly 600 reports of severe winds across the southeast on Monday, 19 instances of suspected tornado-related damage and 72 reports of hail.

Reports of funnel clouds poured into the weather service's office from Sumner County, Tennessee, where the severe weather forced school officials to hold students at the end of the school day, reported CNN affiliate WZTV.

"It got so bad, I grabbed my son (and) got him in the closet," resident Chuck Carter told the station. "We always go to the closet when we think there is a tornado in the area."

In southern Kentucky, line of uprooted trees dotted damaged roads. No injuries were reported, however.

Melvin Pendley wondered how to repair his home, which had its roof blown off.

"The ceilings are collapsed in the bedroom and half the living room," he told CNN affiliate WBKO. "Half of the inside is still OK right now. With all this rain, we don't know what's going to happen now."

In Georgia, the storms knocked out power to 147,000 customers out statewide, Georgia Power said early Tuesday morning.

The dire weather will continue through Tuesday morning, with a moderate risk of severe thunderstorms across parts of eastern Tennessee, northwestern Georgia, central Alabama and southeastern Mississippi, the weather service said.

It also forecast a slight risk of severe thunderstorms across parts of the Lower Mississippi Valley, southern Appalachians, eastern Gulf Coast states and as far north as the mid-Atlantic states.

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