Texas Is Hit by Damaging Winds as Southeast Braces for Severe Weather

Heavy winds damaged homes, downed trees and ripped a roof off a high school in Texas on Monday as a strong storm system that meteorologists said was capable of producing large hail, isolated tornadoes and flooding slammed into the South and Southeast.

Images of destroyed homes, broken trees and streets littered with debris in Jacksboro, about 90 miles northwest of Dallas, circulated widely on social media. About 46,000 customers, mostly in north-central Texas, were without power, according to PowerOutage.us, which aggregates data from utilities across the United States.

Tornado warnings throughout Central Texas were canceled by mid-evening as emergency officials and residents took stock of extensive damage inflicted by several tornadoes that roared through the area beginning in the late afternoon. In Austin, officials had urged people to “get off the road and seek shelter immediately.” While thunderstorms are common in the region throughout the year, severe weather reaches its peak during March, April and May, according to the National Weather Service.

In Elgin, about 25 miles east of Austin, one mobile home was tossed onto the top of a building. Elsewhere in the Austin area, tornadic winds overturned an 18-wheeler.

As a strong front producing rain and snow over the Rockies moves east, a wave of low pressure will develop over the Southern High Plains, the Weather Service said. That system will pull moisture northward over the plains and the Mississippi Valley from the Gulf of Mexico. As of Monday, several areas in the Southern High Plains and lower Mississippi Valley were facing an enhanced risk of severe thunderstorms.

The rolling storms could produce frequent lightning, heavy wind gusts, hail, tornadoes and excessive rainfall that could lead to flash flooding, meteorologists said.

Here is a glance at the forecast by region.

Stormy weather began on Monday afternoon in Texas.

“There’s no roof left,” Starla Sanders, the principal of Jacksboro High School, told the local television station WFAA. The school ended “a little bit early” so students could get home safely, and no injuries were reported, Ms. Sanders said.

She said she had heard reports that her home had been damaged, too. “I haven’t been out there,’’ Ms. Sanders added. “The road’s blocked, but that’s what people say — that there’s not much left of my own house.”

About 14 million people across central and eastern Texas were facing an enhanced risk of severe thunderstorms on Monday, including the cities of Arlington, Dallas, Plano, Fort Worth and Houston, according to the Storm Prediction Center at the National Weather Service.

A larger area that carried a slight risk of thunderstorms covered several million more people and reached to western Louisiana, the southwest tip of Arkansas and the southernmost portion of Oklahoma. There were no reports of deaths or injuries as of 8:30 p.m. Texas time, said Wes Rapaport, spokesperson for the Texas Division of Emergency Management.

Portions of Texas could receive up to four inches of rain through Tuesday evening, with some areas receiving more rain along with possible street flooding, the Weather Service in Houston said.

While there was uncertainty about the timing of the storms and which areas would receive the heaviest rain, meteorologists told residents to prepare.

Storms will move to the Southeast on Tuesday.

As the storms push eastward on Tuesday, more than two million people in portions of Louisiana and Mississippi will be facing a moderate risk of severe weather. Cities in the path of the storms include Baton Rouge, La., and Jackson, Miss.

More than four million people will be facing an enhanced risk for severe storms, circling the southwestern edges of Louisiana through most of Mississippi and a portion of Alabama.

The main threat on Tuesday will be tornadoes and damaging winds before and after the storm, the Weather Service in New Orleans said, adding that hail greater than an inch in diameter could develop. Up to three inches of rain is forecast. A tornado outbreak is also likely on Tuesday.

Areas in Mississippi may see winds as strong as 70 miles per hour and hail the size of golf balls, forecasters said.

About three inches of rain is expected in Memphis. Areas to the east, including Georgia, are expected to receive less rain.

Parts of the East Coast will have a slight risk for severe weather beginning Wednesday.

Dave Montgomery contributed reporting.