Tropical depression stirs up damage across South

NEW ORLEANS — A suspected tornado near Birmingham, Ala., flattened businesses and injured one person Thursday, while the mayor of a coastal Louisiana town urged residents to evacuate ahead of a rising tide — two lingering effects of a weakening Tropical Depression Cindy that was fueling harsh weather across the Southeast.

The walls of a liquor store and an oil-change service in Fairfield, west of Birmingham, collapsed in the apparent twister. A fast-food restaurant also was among the damaged businesses. Dean Argo, a spokesman for the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board said one employee of the liquor store was hurt.

Meteorologist Jason Holmes of the National Weather Service said trees were down and buildings were reported damaged along the Interstate 20 corridor on the western outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama’s most populous city. The weather service had issued tornado warnings earlier for the Birmingham and Tuscaloosa areas.

Meanwhile, the Gulf Coast was still suffering from the effects of Cindy, a former tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico that crawled ashore early Thursday near the LouisianaTexas state line. Downgraded to a tropical depression, Cindy weakened as it crossed Louisiana toward Arkansas but a broad circulation around the system swept moist Gulf air over the South, fueling severe weather and pushing up coastal tides.

In the low-lying Louisiana town of Lafitte, south of New Orleans, Mayor Tim Kerner urged residents in and around the town to seek higher ground because of rising water.

“The tide’s rolling in. It’s getting to a dangerous level,” Kerner said. Streets and yards in the town were covered and Kerner worried that homes, even those in parts of town protected by levees, might be flooded. “I’m hoping not,” he added.

“Certainly it’s not been as bad as we feared. That’s the good news, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said in Baton Rouge. “The bad news is it’s not over yet.”

As a slow-moving tropical storm that formed Tuesday in the Gulf, Cindy was blamed for one death: a 10-year-old boy, Nolan McCabe of St. Louis, Missouri, was vacationing with his family on the Alabama coast when he was hit by a log washed in by a large wave.