TORNADO rips through SOUTHERN STATES - Kills 1 so far

Authorities were waiting for daylight early Friday so they could begin assessing the damage from a reported tornado that killed one person and injured three others in central North Carolina.

What law enforcement officers said was a tornado touched down on the outskirts of Greensboro late Thursday as severe storms swept across the Southeast, damaging homes and businesses in at least three other states.

An apparent tornado also wrecked a shopping area in Mississippi and strong winds flipped a mobile home in Alabama. In south-central Tennessee, at least four homes and a few barns were damaged.

The person killed was in a small truck that overturned in a parking lot in a parking lot west of Greensboro, said Alan Perdue, emergency services director for Guilford County. He did not have other details.

The storm also knocked down a wall at a distributing business, sending one person to the hospital, Perdue said. Two others were hurt while in vehicles, but Perdue said he did not know what happened. None of the injuries were considered life threatening.

The Winston-Salem Journal quoted the North Carolina Highway Patrol as saying the storm blew three tractor-trailers off Interstate 40.

Numerous trees and power lines were down and there were some trees on houses, Perdue said.

"We won't really know until we get daylight to get into the high impact areas to know if we have any other injuries or fatalities," he said.

In Alabama, at least 15 school systems released students early, while others held students late as squalls passed. Winds blew a piece of metal roofing off Hamilton High School, about 90 miles northwest of Birmingham.

"For 10 minutes, it was pretty good wind with lightning and thunder and rain blowing sideways," said Todd Page, who works at a car dealership in Hamilton.

There were no confirmed reports of tornadoes in Alabama but winds gusting up to 60 mph flipped a mobile home, said George Grabryan, emergency management director in Lauderdale County. A house and a building in the rural county were also damaged.

In Tupelo, Miss., an apparent tornado wrecked a furniture store where William Felks and Allan Jackson had to brace themselves during the storm.

"Me and Allan hid behind a door, and I was holding on to his belt as tight as I could. Then in seconds it stopped," Felks told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal. "It took less than a minute to mess this whole building up. Man, I was scared."