Cleaning Up After Mother Nature

People in the Northwest and the Southeast were picking up the pieces Thursday morning after a powerful string of storms and tornadoes tore through several states, taking three lives and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of people.

The severe weather is calming down in both areas of the country, reports CBS This Morning Meteorologist Craig Allen.

An Alabama man was killed when a tree slammed into his trailer home.

In Virginia, powerful winds knocked down power lines and trees. Sixteen workers were injured when fierce winds slammed into a construction site in Richmond, Virginia.

A 45-year-old North Carolina woman was killed when winds threw a tree onto her car near Hendersonville. In Raleigh, North Carolina, a tree fell right down the middle of a house, while more than 100,000 people were without power statewide.

"We weren't expecting this, needless to say, at least not to this extent," State Police Lt. G.W. Taylor said. "There was a combination of wrecks, vehicles that wouldn't go, snow, ice and strong winds."

Washington Gov. Gary Locke declared a state of emergency in five western counties after a punishing storm with wind gusts of 68 mph.

The storm in the region is weakening as it moves up to Vancouver Island.

Seattle commuters still had a tough time getting to work Thursday, since one of two routes used to traverse Lake Washington was still closed after its drawbridge malfunctioned. It wasn't expected to be fixed until Friday.

High winds also canceled passenger ferry service in the Puget Sound area Wednesday morning, affecting about 45,000 people.