Powerful storms slam South; at least 6 killed in Alabama
Selma, Alabama: A giant, swirling storm system billowing across the South killed at least six people Thursday in central Alabama, authorities said, and spawned a tornado that shredded the walls of homes, toppled roofs and uprooted trees in Selma.
Ernie Baggett, the emergency management director in Autauga County, Alabama, told The Associated Press he could confirm six fatalities were scattered across multiple homes in the Old Kingston community. Baggett said mobile homes and conventional homes were both damaged.
“It seems to have been a couple of different houses where people were at home,” Baggett said.
He said at least 12 people were injured severely enough to be taken to hospitals by emergency responders. Baggett said he didn’t know the extent of their injuries. Autauga County, Alabama, is 41 miles (66 kilometers) northeast of Selma.
Officials estimate that 40 to 50 homes were damaged or destroyed by storms that cut a strip across the county, Baggett said.
He said crews were focused on Thursday evening on cutting through downed trees to look for people who may be injured. “Search and rescue is really more what’s going on right now,” Baggett said.
In Selma, a city etched in the history of the civil rights movement, brick buildings collapsed, cars were on their side and traffic poles were strewn about in the downtown area. Plumes of thick, black smoke rose over the city from a fire burning. It was not immediately known whether the storm caused the blaze.
A few blocks past the city’s famed Edmund Pettus Bridge, an enduring symbol of the voting rights movement, buildings were crumpled by the storm and trees blocked roadways.
Selma Mayor James Perkins said that no fatalities have been reported at this time, but first responders are continuing to assess the damage.
“People have been injured, but no fatalities,” Perkins said. “We have a lot of downed power lines. There is a lot of danger on the streets.” A city curfew is being put into place, the mayor added.
The “large and extremely dangerous tornado” caused damage as it moved through the historic city, the National Weather Service said. There were confirmed reports of tree and structural damage in Selma and reports of damage in other counties, the agency said.