Storm claims 13 lives including eight from children’s home killed in fireball

EIGHT children in a van from a home for abused or neglected children were among those killed in a multi-vehicle crash and fireball on a wet freeway amid stormy weather in Alabama.

The crash also killed a man and his baby in another vehicle in what was the most devastating blow from a tropical depression that claimed 13 lives in Alabama while causing flash floods and spurring tornadoes that destroyed dozens of homes.

The crash happened on Saturday around 35 miles south of Montgomery on Interstate 65 as vehicles likely hydroplaned on wet roads, said Butler County Coroner Wayne Garlock. The van, containing children ages four to 17, belonged to the Tallapoosa County Girls Ranch, a youth home operated by the Alabama Sheriffs Association.

Michael Smith, the youth ranches’ CEO, said the van was heading back to the ranch near Camp Hill, north-east of Montgomery, after a week at the beach in Gulf Shores. The van caught fire after the wreck. Candice Gulley, the ranch’s director, was the van’s only survivor, pulled from the flames by a passerby. The crash also claimed the lives of two others who were in a separate vehicle. Mr Garlock identified them as 29-yearold Cody Fox and his nine-monthold daughter, Ariana, both of Marion County, Tennessee.

Meanwhile, a 24-year-old man and a three-year-old boy were also killed on Saturday when a tree fell on their house just outside the Tuscaloosa city limits. A 23-year-old woman also died in the area on Saturday after her car ran off the road into a flooded creek.

The deaths occurred as drenching rains from Tropical Depression Claudette pelted northern Alabama and Georgia late on Saturday. As much as 12 inches of rain was