Rain, hail, floods all throughout East
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Satellite image taken Saturday at 3:45 p.m. EST
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(AP) -- A pair of parallel storm systems pounded the East Coast and Ohio Valley with heavy rain Saturday, feeding the growing floodwaters and causing some structures to collapse as the snow left over from the President's Day storm became increasingly heavy.
Midday rainfall totals of 1 to 2 inches were common from the Southeast to New England, flooding streets and swelling rivers, with more rain in the forecast.
In Lanham, Maryland, the roof of a Toys 'R' Us store caved in, injuring at least three people. Maryland emergency officials received scattered reports throughout the state of collapsed retail buildings, barns and garages, though no other injuries were reported.
In the Southeast, a massive squall line rolled over southern Georgia and the eastern and central Carolinas, with hail up to an inch in diameter reported in Alabama and Georgia, where severe wind damaged several trailers at a park in Smiths Mill.
Flash-flood warnings were in effect from the Tennessee Valley to the Mid-Atlantic. By afternoon, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, had recorded more than 2 inches; in Gainesville, Georgia, 1.75 inches had also fallen by midday.
In the Ohio Valley, a second, less active wave of storms was brewing in an arc from southern Missouri to upstate New York. A few embedded thunderstorms rattled Pennsylvania and New Jersey, but rainfall was otherwise scattered and light.
To the west, a smaller storm system also wound through the Rockies, bringing scattered snow showers only.
The rest of the nation, mostly dominated by high pressure, was plagued only by a cloudy sky. Patchy fog made driving tricky in parts of the West Coast.
Temperatures in the continental United States on Friday ranged from a low of minus 24 degrees in Orr, Minnesota, to a high of 87 in Sanford, Florida.
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