Out with a whimper: Storms over in East, South

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The remnants of violent storms that killed more than a dozen people in Oklahoma moved out to sea with a whimper Monday, but not before sending punishing winds and torrential downpours to New England and spawning a tornado in South Carolina.

Sunday's storms sheared off trees and utility poles in parts of northern New England and dropped ping pong ball-sized hail in New York state.

On Monday, the storm blew out to the Atlantic with only isolated thunderstorms and localized heavy rain as a cold front began moving in and clearing the region.

At the peak of the storm, more than 40,000 homes and businesses were without power in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. That number had fallen to about 12,000 on Monday morning, with utilities hopeful to have most power restored by the end of the day.

In all, there were more than 100 reports of severe weather across the region on Sunday, mostly in a swath from central New York to Maine.

In northwestern South Carolina, a tornado knocked a home off its foundation and blew part of the roof off, said Taylor Jones, director of emergency management for Anderson County. Some trees were blown down and there was heavy rain but no widespread damage.

Although there were plenty of reports of severe weather, there weren't widespread reports of extreme weather, with winds in excess of 75 mph and hail measuring 2 inches in diameter, said John Koch, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service East region headquarters in Bohemia, N.Y.

"Still, we're fortunate nobody was injured or hurt," he said.

The storms swept through the Plains on Friday with tornadoes and flooding, resulting in the deaths of at least 18 people, officials said Monday.

Via Yahoo News!