house put an unofficial gag order on border agents. what appears to be a dangerous mountain bike accident turns into an epic proposal. the shocking plan from this wedding crasher. fox and friends first starts right now. let s get it started hot let s get it started here let s get it started. we are live from new york city and london and with that good morning, you are watching fox and friends first on thursday morning. benjamin: straight to extreme weather. millions of americans on high alert bracing for potential tornadoes across the southeast, 21 reported touchdowns slammed the deep south, the storm leaving a trail of destruction in alabama and mississippi. jillian: severe storms causing flash flooding, fierce lightning streaking across the mississippi tennessee sky and listen to this from the university of alabama. senior meteorologist janice dean tracking the dangerous line of storms. this is what you were afraid of. janice: we have another day of sever
accountable? i don t know if i can say this happy st. patrick s day is that okay? st. patrick s did we dig up something on him? what did he do? good morning everybody, it is 6 a.m. here in the east we start with extreme weather. heavy winds and rain still bat ergs portions of the southeast with millions on high alert. bracing for potential tornadoes at least 21 twisters touched down in portions of the south ainsley. ainsley: leaving destruction in alabama, mississippi, a thousand now without power. bad in alabama too an electric company sharing this picture of a boat wrapped around top of a tree. that s a boat. janice dean is tracking the dangerous storms she told us about it yesterday. man, it came janice. another day ahead so more people are going to be targeted by these storms know what to do if there s a watch or warning in your area and we have tornado watches in effect. there are reports of tornadoes yesterday, the watch extending in towards florida as well
it reminds you after 9/11. exactly. people going around with pictures asking if anybody had seen their relatives. you know, growing up, in where hurricane season is such an important part of the year because you re just holding your breath hoping your city doesn t get devastated. usually we get to october, middle of october, end of october and we start feeling better because we think, okay, well, it passed us by this year, we re going to be fine. that s what people in this area were starting to think because the congressman said last hour, this has been a fairly inactive season for tornadoes. but my god, the past week, absolutely devastating and as bill karins reported earlier, today may be another deadly day. he s predicting 10 to 12 tornadoes and i m just, there s a light show going on behind us. lightning. lightning streaking across the sky. it s been doing that nonstop since we landed late last night. i was going to say, when we pulled in last night, it was a
lightning streaking across the sky, and as you said, extremely rare. we have multiple fires burning, in fact, in the state at this hour and flames chewed up about 7,000 acres, near bakersfield, california. and that is about 112 miles north of los angeles. evacuations only on a voluntary basis for communities in that area and we are happy to report, crews are making progress because the fire is at 60% containment. now, a second blaze in that area burned about 23,000 acres. that one, 90% contained. and, then, just to the northeast of there, flames ripping through kern county, california into the near nearby sequioa national forest and there were as many as 50 fires that started in kern county alone on saturday, because of those unusual thunderstorms moving through there, bill. that lightning mixed with the
weekend. the largest of those fires burning around bakersfield, about two hours north of los angeles. fire crews say they are starting to get a handle on the situation now. but we re told flames have already scorched some 40 square miles and some homes are still in danger. now officials are warning those folks to get out. casey stegall with the news live in our southern california newsroom. this all started with a pretty wild thunderstorm really. yeah, shepard. something we don t see every day here in california, especially in the central part of the state where this is all happening. really lightning streaking through the night sky over the weekend. pretty pictures but what it did not so pretty. igniting dry brush, causing dozens of fires. nine are still burning at this hour and threatening about 2300 homes. lightning also to blame for a wildfire that has destroyed nearly 20 houses up in washington state near the oregon border. some folks near golden dale simply ran out of time,