TWISTER KILLS 7 FAMILY MEMBERS.
U.S. tornado victims range in age from 6 to 89
BEAUREGARD, ALA. • The youngest victim was 6, the oldest 89. One extended family lost seven members. The 23 people killed in the U.S.’s deadliest tornado in nearly six years came into focus Tuesday when the coroner finished identifying them and released their names.
They included 6-year-old Armando Hernandez Jr., known as “AJ,” torn from his father’s arms two days after singing in his first-grade class musical; 10-year-old Taylor Thornton, who loved horses and was visiting a friend’s home when the twister struck; and David Wayne Dean, 53, nicknamed “Roaddog” because of his love for Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
“Just keep those families in your prayers,” Lee County Coroner Bill Harris said, two days after the disaster. The search for victims, pets and belongings in and around the devastated rural community of Beauregard continued amid the din of heavy machinery and whining chainsaws. But Sheriff Jay Jones said the list of the missing had shrunk from dozens to just seven or eight. “We’ve got piles of rubble that we are searching just to make sure,” said Opelika Fire Chief Byron Prather Jr. “We don’t think we’ll find nobody there, but we don’t want to leave any stone unturned.” Four children were killed, ages 6, 8, 9 and 10. Prather said the mother of 6-year-old AJ rushed to the scene Sunday in distress.
“She just said her child was swept from the father’s arms,” Prather said. “A mother’s love for her child. How do you tell a mom that she can’t go look for her child? She went and tried to find her child, like everybody else.” Dean’s body was found by his son in a neighbour’s yard after the twister demolished his mobile home.
“He was done and gone before we got to him,” said his sobbing widow, Carol Dean, who was at work when the storm hit. “My life is gone. He was the reason I lived, the reason that I got up.”
The tornado was an EF4 with winds estimated at 274 km/h and chewed a path of destruction up to 1.4 kilometres wide in Alabama for nearly 43 kilometres. Ninety people were injured, authorities said. Most had been released from the hospital as of Monday. President Donald Trump said he will visit Alabama on Friday to see the damage. “It’s been a tragic situation, but a lot of good work is being done,” he said. Government teams surveying storm damage confirmed Tuesday that at least 18 tornadoes struck on Sunday in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.