EF-3 Tornadoes Hit Georgia & South Carolina - Apr. 5, 2022

Strong storms sweeping through the South have left at least two people dead as the severe weather dropped trees and spawned dozens of tornadoes from Mississippi to South Carolina.

In Georgia, there were reports of two tornadoes and one person killed Tuesday as the storms blew through. Bryan County Coroner Bill Cox confirmed the death but didn't have any details about the victim or how they died.

Bryan County Fire and Emergency Services said earlier that tornado debris had trapped some people in their homes. Bryan County is located near Savannah.

Mary Edwards was driving on Interstate 16 in Georgia not far from Savannah when she saw a tornado ahead.

The twister appeared just minutes after Edwards received an alert on her phone for a tornado warning.

"To see it right before you, it's humbling. It's exciting, it's majestic, and you really get that sense of mortality. You surrender," she said.

The other known storm death occurred in East Texas where a middle-aged man in an RV was killed Tuesday morning in the community of Whitehouse, southeast of Tyler, when a tree fell on the vehicle, the Smith County emergency management coordinator said.

The victim's name was not released. The county was assessing damage to the area after reports of several trees down on homes and trees on roads, the coordinator, Jay Brooks, said.

At least three people suffered non-life-threatening injuries in Allendale County in South Carolina, a spokesperson for the South Carolina Emergency Management Division said. Brandon LaVorgna added there were no known storm deaths.

A few dozen homes and businesses in the county on the Georgia border were damaged, LaVorgna said.

The Storm Prediction Center said there were 35 tornado reports from Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina as of 10:40 p.m. ET.