Storms, Floods Plague Plains; South Swelters

Thunderstorms rumbled through the Plains and the South on Friday, flooding parts of Texas and triggering downpours in Georgia.

Although the thunderstorms brought some relief from recent heat, customers of the Southern Co. set a record for electricity consumption.

The company said customers in Georgia, Alabama, Florida and Mississippi used 28.3 million kilowatts of electricity Thursday to fight 90 degree-plus weather, topping the previous mark of 27.4 million kilowatts.

Flash flood watches were posted in southeast New Mexico and southwest Texas as showers and thunderstorms drifted through the Southern Plains, the National Weather Service reported.

Heavy rain caused street flooding overnight in the Texas Panhandle town of Hart, and strong winds overturned trees and damaged roofs in Midland.

Thunderstorms rolled across southwest Minnesota, part of a storm system that extended into east-central Iowa. Related storms dropped heavy amounts of rain over parts of northwestern Iowa and northeastern Nebraska, the weather officials said.

A slow-moving low-pressure trough stretching from North Carolina to central Alabama dotted parts of the South with thundershowers and dumped heavy rain overnight across parts of southeast Georgia.

An Army convoy truck hauling Stinger missiles apparently for shipment to the Middle East overturned in a heavy thunderstorm near Savannah, Ga., dumping the weapons onto Interstate 95 and slightly injuring the driver. The missiles did not explode and the wreckage was cleared in about two hours, authorities said.

A blanket of fog, meanwhile, covered much of the Northeast from Vermont to southern Maryland early Friday.