The National Weather Service in Morristown says Damage Assessment conducted on storm damage at the Lovell Crossing Apartments in Knoxville was caused by an EF-2 tornado.

The storms which caused damage across East Tennessee and through much of the eastern United States began Monday afternoon with high winds and heavy rains.

The NWS said the tornado in Knoxville had winds up to 130 mph and a path 200 yards wide.

Storm damage wasn’t limited to Knoxville. Several trees were downed in the Dandridge area of Jefferson County, causing a power outage that initially knocked out power to over 12,000 Appalachian Electric Co-op members. AEC crews worked overnight to bring as many customers as possible back online.

By 11:30 a.m. the number of outages had been reduced to 2,000.

“We have severe damage in many locations across our service area,” AEC officials said in a statement. “With damage of this magnitude, it is possible it could take days to get power restored to ALL of our members. We have our own crews working around the clock alongside contract crews and crews from other utilities. Know that we are doing everything possible to get power restored to our members as quickly and safely as possible.”

Several trees around the Jefferson County Courthouse in Dandridge were down and Jefferson County schools were called off for Tuesday.

Jefferson County E-911 indicated that during the brunt of the storm, it’s operators handled 1,400 to 1,600 calls. On an average day, the system processes about 320 calls.

Powerful storm kills 2 people and leaves 1.1 million without power in eastern US

WASHINGTON (AP) — At least two people died, thousands of U.S. flights were canceled or delayed, and more than 1.1 million homes and businesses lost power Monday as severe storms, including hail and lightning, moved through the eastern U.S.

The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for the greater D.C. area, lasting until 9 p.m. A special Weather Service statement warned, “There is a significant threat for damaging and locally destructive hurricane-force winds, along with the potential for large hail and tornadoes, even strong tornadoes.”

The storms’ spread was massive, with tornado watches and warnings posted across 10 states from Tennessee to New York. The National Weather Service said more than 29.5 million people were under a tornado watch Monday afternoon.

In Anderson, South Carolina, a 15-year-old boy who arrived at his grandparent’s house during the storm was struck and killed when a tree fell on him as he got out of a car, according to the Anderson County Office of the Coroner.

In Florence, Alabama, police said a 28-year-old man was struck by lightning and died, WAAY-TV reported.

By Monday night, more than 2,600 U.S. flights had been canceled and nearly 7,900 delayed, according to flight tracking service FlightAware. Many cancellations were at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which was digging out from disruptions caused by Sunday storms.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it was rerouting planes around storms heading to the East Coast.