Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Deadly storms
BEAUREGARD, Ala. — A tornado roared into southeast Alabama and killed at least 22 people and injured several others Sunday, part of a severe storm system that destroyed homes, snapped trees and unleashed other tornadoes around the Southeast.
The tornado was one of several in an outbreak springing from a severe weather front that lashed the Southeast on Sunday.
Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones said late Sunday evening that children are among the dead in Beauregard, the area of apparently greatest destruction.
“The damage is significant,” Jones told reporters on Sunday. “I would put it in the category of catastrophic based on the destruction of the homes we’ve seen.”
Jones said it’s possible the death toll could continue to rise, but authorities were pausing search efforts overnight because the debris is making search conditions too dangerous in the dark.
The sheriff said the twister traveled straight down a key local artery in Beauregard, about 60 miles east of Montgomery, and that the path of damage and destruction appeared at least a half-mile wide. He said mobile homes were destroyed and that some single-family homes were wiped to the slab.
“There’s debris laying everywhere,” Chief Byron Prather of the Opelika Fire Department told WSFA-TV. “There was a mobile home frame in the middle of the road at one time. There’s personal belongings in the trees. There’s insulation, there’s building material in the trees.”
The East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika, about 7 miles north of Beauregard, had received more than 60 patients and expected more, said John Atkinson, a spokesman for the center. He said the conditions of the patients varied.
Dozens of emergency responders rushed to join search and rescue efforts in hard-hit Lee County in the wake of the powerful storm system that also slashed its way across parts of Georgia, South Carolina and Florida.
Radar and video evidence showed a large tornado crossing the area near Beauregard shortly after 2 p.m. Sunday, said meteorologist Meredith Wyatt with the Birmingham, Ala., office of the National Weather Service.
“It appears it stayed on the ground for at least a mile and maybe longer,” Jones said.
The weather Service confirmed late Sunday that the tornado was at least an EF3, meaning wind speeds were between 136 and 165 mph and damage is considered to be “severe.”
After nightfall Sunday, the rain had stopped and pieces of metal debris and tree branches littered roadways in Beauregard. Two sheriff’s vehicles blocked reporters and others from reaching the worst-hit area. Power appeared to be out in many places.
Rita Smith, spokesman for the Lee County Emergency Management Agency, said about 150 first responders had quickly joined efforts to search the debris after the storm struck in Beauregard. At least one trained canine could be seen with search crews as numerous ambulances and emergency vehicles, lights flashing, converged on the area.
“We’ve still got people being pulled out of rubble,” Lee County Coroner Bill Harris told Al.com on Sunday evening. “We’re going to be here all night.”
President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday evening: “To the great people of Alabama and surrounding areas: Please be careful and safe. Tornadoes and storms were truly violent and more could be coming.”
His tweet concluded: “To the families and friends of the victims, and to the injured, God bless you all!”
No deaths had been reported Sunday evening from storm-damaged Alabama counties outside Lee County, said Gregory Robinson, spokesman for the Alabama Emergency Management Agency. But he said crews were still surveying damage in several counties in the southwestern part of the state.
SIRENS SOUND
Numerous tornado warnings were also posted across parts of Georgia, Florida and South Carolina on Sunday afternoon as the storm system raced across the region. Weather officials said they confirmed other tornadoes around the region by radar alone and would send teams out early today to assess those and other storms.
In rural Talbotton, Ga., about 80 miles south of Atlanta, a handful of people were injured by either powerful straight-line winds or a tornado that destroyed several mobile homes and damaged other buildings, said Leigh Ann Erenheim, director of the Talbot County Emergency Management Agency.
Henry Wilson of the Peach County Emergency Management Agency near Macon in central Georgia said a barn had been destroyed and trees and power poles had been snapped, leaving many in the area without power.
Authorities in southwest Georgia are searching doorto-door in darkened neighborhoods after a possible tornado touched down in the rural city of Cairo, about 33 miles north of Tallahassee, Fla., on Sunday evening. There were no immediate reports of serious injuries.
Authorities said a tornado was confirmed by radar in the Florida panhandle late Sunday afternoon. A portion of Interstate 10 on the panhandle was blocked in one direction for a time in Walton County in the aftermath, said Don Harrigan, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Tallahassee.