Major storm brings flash flooding, damaging winds to East Coast

(NEW YORK) — Heavy rain, thunderstorms and gusty winds are moving through the Northeast on Friday as a major storm system lifts into Canada.

The storm system previously brought 11 confirmed tornadoes across six states — Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and North Carolina. The worst of the rain is over for the Interstate 95 corridor with just showers on and off into the afternoon.

Behind this storm, a wind advisory has been issued from Maine to Georgia, with gusts near 50 mph for some areas Friday. There are flood and wind alerts for the eastern U.S. from the Great Lakes to the Carolinas and up to Maine.

Gusty winds are expected Friday afternoon and some higher elevations in New England could see gusts up to 55 mph. Gusty winds will last into Saturday.   An EF-1 tornado with winds up to 100 mph caused damage Thursday near St. Augustine, Florida.

In addition to tornadoes, there have been 77 damaging storm reports from Florida to West Virginia in the last 24 hours. Wind gusts were reported to be 58 to 68 mph in North Carolina and Virginia.

A flash flood emergency was issued Thursday evening just west of Pittsburgh, where nearly 4 inches of rain fell in a matter of hours. Numerous water rescues were reported in Pittsburgh metro area Thursday night.

Officially, Pittsburgh, is having the wettest start to any month on record. In the last 11 days, the city has seen more than 7 inches of rain.

In Charleston, South Carolina, dozens of roads closed downtown due to flooding on Thursday. The city had record daily rainfall of 3.23 inches.

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