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[video]http://cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2010/11/30/bts.ga.severe.weather.wsb[/video]
Atlanta, Georgia -- A severe storm system that raked the Deep South with tornadoes and heavy rain set its sights on much of the Eastern Seaboard on Wednesday.
Severe thunderstorms are possible from the Florida panhandle to Maryland, with the possibility of flash flooding forecast from northern Georgia into Vermont and New Hampshire, according to the National Weather Service.
The system slammed into metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia, Tuesday, damaging dozens of homes and snarling the afternoon commute.
At least 56 homes and one business in suburban Gwinnett County, Georgia, were damaged by a possible tornado, police there said. Twelve of the residences suffered major damage.
There were no reported injuries.
Video showed damaged roofs and trees in northern Gwinnett County, about 35 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta. The National Weather Service did not have a warning for the neighborhood where the damage occurred. One home was missing an exterior wall, according to CNN Atlanta affiliate WSB. The siding and insulation from the home were woven into a toppled tree about 50 yards away.
"I was on my way home from work and the parents were calling us to see if the kids were OK. I knew a tornado hit at Gravel Springs [Road]; I didn't know it was going to be our house," resident Erin Birdsong told WSB.
Damage also was reported nearby in the city of Buford, according to the weather service. It was not immediately clear whether that damage was from straight-line winds or a tornado.
Tornadoes during this time of year can be particularly dangerous because they are fast-moving and obscured by rain and darkness, according to CNN meteorologist Sean Morris.
Wednesday's storms are most likely to produce tornadoes in central and eastern North Carolina, including Raleigh-Durham; north-central and northeastern South Carolina; and south-central Virginia.
In Mississippi, state authorities dispatched emergency crews Tuesday to survey the damage after an onslaught of severe weather that injured at least 32 people, damaged property in 10 counties and cut power.
Four tornadoes classified as EF-2 hit the state, the National Weather Service forecast office in Jackson, Mississippi said Tuesday evening.
Two were in Yazoo County, one slammed Starkville, and the fourth touched down in Raleigh. An EF-2 twister (on the Enhanced Fujita Tornado Damage Scale) produces wind gusts, estimated by damage assessments, of 110-137 mph, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
In Attala County, storms destroyed nine mobile homes, injured six people and left parts of the area without power, the service said.
A tornado touched down in Yazoo County on Monday night, causing damage to a downtown Yazoo City courthouse and tossing debris in a wide area, according to an emergency management spokesman.
The twister touched down about 8:05 p.m., according to the National Weather Service's Jackson office.
Greg Flynn, spokesman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, said the damage included "a lot of windows blown out, some roof damage and very little power in the downtown area" of Yazoo City, about 45 miles north of Jackson.
No severe injuries or deaths have been reported, he said. Thirty-two people suffered minor injuries.
In April, at least 10 people died when a mile-wide tornado tore through Mississippi. Two of the dead were children, one of them 3 months old. Five of the dead were from Choctaw County, in the north central part of the state; four were from Yazoo County; and one was from Holmes County, also in north-central Mississippi, according to the state emergency management agency.
