Fierce storms are targeting the Ohio Valley and tracking through the Southeast Thursday, a day after deadly storms spawned damaging tornadoes and flash flood emergencies from Texas to Mississippi.

A flash flood emergency warning of life-threatening flooding was issued early Thursday in the Tallahassee, Florida, area, where water was entering structures and rescues were underway, according to the National Weather Service.

More than a month’s worth of rain fell in the city in just two hours early Thursday morning. The city sees 3.52 inches in a typical April, but 7.09 inches fell there since Wednesday night.

Multiple flash flood emergencies – the most significant flood alert possible – were issued on Wednesday, including in New Orleans, as incredibly moist storms deluged parts of Texas and Louisiana.

The storms packed almost double the moisture found in typical spring storms in the region. The added moisture helped the storms to unload torrential, flooding rainfall.

As the atmosphere continues to warm due to human-caused climate change it’s able to soak up more moisture like a towel and then ring it out in the form of more extreme gushes of flooding rainfall, increasing the chance of more extreme rainfall events.

In addition to the life-threatening flooding, at least five tornadoes occurred in Louisiana, Texas and Alabama Wednesday as the storms caused widespread power outages and damage to homes and businesses across parts of the Gulf Coast.

So far, one person has been reported dead in central Mississippi’s Scott County, Gov. Tate Reeves said Wednesday.

The storms will start to lose some punch as they track east on Thursday. A Level 2 of 5 risk of severe thunderstorms is in place from Florida to South Carolina, the Storm Prediction Center said. The main threats will be damaging winds and drenching rain, but a tornado or two could also arise before storms move off the coast by late afternoon.

Though the severe threat is diminishing across the South, strong winds are still gusting through much of the region, where more than 30 million people are under wind advisories.

“Gusty winds could blow around unsecured objects. Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result,” the weather service warned.

Farther north, there’s a higher, Level 3 of 5, risk of severe thunderstorms over the Ohio Valley through Thursday afternoon and evening. These storms could pack an even bigger punch than those down south.

Multiple tornadoes, damaging winds and hail are possible in the most at-risk area, which extends from western West Virginia across eastern Ohio. The surrounding area, including eastern Ohio and parts of Pennsylvania and Kentucky, are also susceptible to these hazards but the tornado risk is slightly lower.

Heavy rain outside of the severe thunderstorm areas could lead to flooding issues for much of the East. A Level 2 of 4 risk of flooding rain is in effect for parts of the mid-Atlantic and interior Northeast, according to the Weather Prediction Center.

By Friday, the bulk of the severe storms will have moved off the coast, but there will still be some risk of flooding in parts of northern New England as drenching storms shift through the Great Lakes and interior Northeast.

Storms carve a path of destruction

As the storms bulldozed from Texas to Mississippi Wednesday, they left damage and destruction in their wake.

More than 175,000 homes and businesses were still without power from Texas to Georgia as of Thursday morning, according to PowerOutage.us.

At least 10 people were injured when an EF1 tornado ripped through Slidell, Louisiana, police said. Storms left city roads scattered with trees and power lines and rising water levels prompted first responders to organize water rescues, Slidell police spokesperson Daniel Seuzeneau said.

Tornadoes also churned up in Saint Francisville and around Lake Charles, Louisiana, the National Weather Service said.

Another EF1 tornado struck a stretch of businesses in the Houston suburb of Katy, Texas. No injuries were reported Wednesday, but the storm damaged a strip mall and a neighboring car repair shop, said National Weather Service meteorologist Jeffry Evans. Images show a large portion of the businesses’ roof collapsed into the parking lot and surrounded by rubble and metal debris.

Across Mississippi, more than 70 homes have been reported damaged or destroyed, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said Wednesday.

Torrential downpours also triggered treacherous flooding in parts of Texas and Louisiana, where officials rushed to perform water rescues as roads turned to rivers.

In New Orleans, water spilled into the streets as exceptional rainfall overwhelmed the city’s complex network of water pumps and other aging flood-mitigating infrastructure, the city’s Sewerage and Water Board said.

New Orleans saw one of several daily rainfall records that were broken across the South on Wednesday. The city’s Louis Armstrong International Airport received 6.44 inches – almost triple its previous record.

CNN’s Taylor Ward, Monica Garrett, Caroll Alvarado, Sara Smart, Rachel Ramirez, Jacob Lev, Rosa Flores, Sara Weisfeldt, Devon Sayers and Rebekah Riess contributed to this report.