The first ship carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza was on its way Thursday to a floating platform built by the U.S. military. The plan is for cargo to be transferred at the pier to smaller U.S. boats that will deliver it to shore.

The Rafah border crossing with Egypt, a main entry point for aid, has been shut down since Israel’s military took control of the Palestinian side early Tuesday.

Civilians in Rafah have been thrown into panic and chaos by the possibility of a full-scale Israeli invasion of the overcrowded city. Tens of thousands of displaced and exhausted Palestinians have packed up their tents and other belongings and left for other parts of Gaza.

A wave of dangerous storms began washing over parts of the South early Thursday, a day after severe weather with damaging tornadoes and large hail killed at least three people in the region.

A heavy line of storms swept into Atlanta near the end of the morning rush hour. Busy hub airports in Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina, reported delays Thursday morning. Tornado warnings were issued for parts of Tennessee and Alabama.

The storms continue a streak of torrential rains and tornadoes this week from the Plains to the Midwest and, now, the Southeast. At least four people have died since Monday. The weather comes on the heels of a stormy April in which the U.S. had 300 confirmed tornadoes, the second-most on record for the month and the most since 2011.

Storms had already left more than a quarter-million customers without power Thursday in North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Missouri, according to PowerOutage.us.

A storm Wednesday in northeastern Tennessee damaged homes, injured people, toppled power lines and trees, and killed a 22-year-old man in a car in Claiborne County, north of Knoxville, officials said. A second person was killed south of Nashville in Columbia, the Maury County seat, where officials said a tornado had likely touched down and homes were blown off their foundations.

The family of a 23-year-old Black U.S. Air Force airman who was fatally shot by sheriff’s deputies at his off-base apartment in Florida last week will join civil rights attorney Ben Crump for a news conference Thursday calling for transparency in the investigation.

Crump said in a statement released Wednesday that Okaloosa County Sheriff’s deputies responding to a disturbance call at the apartment complex in Fort Walton Beach burst into the wrong unit and fatally shot Senior Airman Roger Fortson when they saw he was armed with a gun. Fortson was home alone and on a Facetime call with a friend when deputies arrived at his door, Crump said.

Fortson was based at the Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field.

According to Crump, the woman, whom the attorney didn’t identify, said Fortson heard a knock at the door. He asked who was there but didn’t get a response. A few minutes later, Fortson heard a louder knock but didn’t see anyone when he looked through the peephole, Crump said, citing the woman’s account.

The woman said Fortson was concerned and went to retrieve his gun, which Crump said was legally owned.

Sabrina Thompson can be reached at thom4836@stthomas.edu.