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Hello from CNN, I'm Joe Beck, with the five things you need to know

for Friday, May 17th.

At least four people are dead, and more than a million homes and businesses have lost power,

after brutal storms battered Texas and Louisiana overnight.

And more flooding is expected to hit parts of the Gulf Coast today.

Authorities say two people were killed by fallen trees while someone else died in a crane

accident and all the deaths happened in Houston. The violent

weather left a trail of damage to buildings in the city and the mayor warned

about the danger of fallen trees and mangled power lines that are blocking

roadways.

You have to be sensitive to that.

So stay at home.

It's dark.

You'll come upon it without notice.

And it also allow the first responders to do their job.

Now the soaking storms will start to shift east and more than 30 million people are at risk of severe

weather today across parts of the Gulf Coast.

As protests continue to cause tensions at college campuses across the country, Columbia University's

president is in hot water again.

Some professors at the university have passed a vote of no confidence against Manus chafique,

...